Moving in to the future
by Jarospar
Summary: Vincent Valentine has drawn a close to his past regrets and self blame and said a final good bye to Lucretia.  He is moving forward with his life and is startled to find that he is attracted to another woman.
1. Chapter 1  Commencing the new training

**Moving in to the future**

**Summary**

Vincent Valentine has drawn a close to his past regrets and self blame and said a final good bye to Lucretia. He is moving forward with his life and is startled to find that he is attracted to another woman...

This is the first fan fiction that I have ever written and I would welcome any reviews that are offered. I have drafted a few of the next chapters already so that I can keep the continuity going in my mind and make amendments as needed. I hope people do enjoy it, but if you can offer suggestions for improvement, I would welcome them with thanks. I have also proof read this chapter several times – if I have managed to miss any typos, my apologies and I will correct it if you let me know. Many thanks!

**Commencing the new training year**

The sun shone brightly, giving a feeling of glorious warmth in the large office. Reeve looked out of the window at the sparkle of sunlight and smiled. Today was the first day of the new training year at the WRO headquarters in Kalm, everything that he had been working towards since the downfall of Sepiroth and the destruction of Meteor. Repairing the damage and eradication that had occurred, especially around Midgar, had been an intensive time for Reeve in the last few years. Many people had been killed or badly injured during the horrific battles and assaults caused initially by Shinra with its destruction of the Sector 7 plates in Midgar, with the Turks carrying out brutal explosions, but then flowing on through SOLDIER and Deepground and the unexpected and damning re-emergence of Sepiroth with the Jenova clones.

Reeve had been committed to working towards the rebuilding of the cities and helping with the medical care of those injured and disabled by the evil plots that had occurred one after the other. So many children had been left orphaned following the brutal and devastating attacks on towns and Reeve had realised that without the emergence of the WRO, the people would take years to recover and move forward.

A sharp knock on the door drew his attention back in to the room and he looked up as the door opened to reveal the anonymous benefactor of the WRO – Rufus Shinra. Son of the previous President of the old Shinra, Rufus had been a witness to the damage that had erupted on the planet and to the people. Despite many still blaming him and being distrustful of his real attitude, Reeve knew that Rufus was in fact totally committed towards undoing and repairing the damage caused by Shinra and its foul members and activities. While originally he had been set upon making Shinra rule and make money and ordering whatever was needed to oppose and remove anything threatening Shinra's might, the devastation that had occurred had changed him completely. His previous existence under his father's Presidency had blinkered his view – he had never really had the opportunity to look at the world and come to his own views of right and wrong, he had simply been brought up to see Shinra as the elite, its protection and growth more important than anything else. That belief had changed – he had inwardly become a broken man and while his personality never allowed him to show this to anyone, Reeve had understood and had been totally accepting of his changed attitude, hidden as it might be.

Rufus still headed up Shinra, but its work was now focused on projects that could be undertaken to enhance the benefit of the cities around. He was still focused on making money, but he wanted this now so that he could put it towards the WRO, to enable the reparation work to be undertaken. He funded the WRO by hundreds of millions of gil each year, given to Reeve to allocate to the work of the WRO as Reeve and his executive commission decided.

"Good morning, Rufus" Reeve said, moving across to the coffee machine to pour him a mug.

"Good morning, Reeve" he replied, as he took the mug and moved across to the window to look outside. "The new training wing is now complete – and you begin the full training year for the first time. I – I wish you luck with this, Reeve. There is still so much that needs to be done, but you will finally now be able to achieve it with dedicated and committed staff, more than you have had in the last few years. The WRO is now recognised as the greatest benefactor to the planet, working with all the governments and committees on the face of the planet." Rufus was silent for a short time as he drank his coffee and let his eyes roam around the view outside, then he sighed and turned around to face Reeve. "Nothing will ever let me forget the evil inflicted by the old Shinra Company – my father has so much still to answer for. I just hope that we are moved on from all that happened, and will now only encounter the rebuilding and regrowth".

Reeve looked at Rufus – he understood where his mind was wandering. "I believe that it is all over now, Rufus. But we will remain alert and continue to watch for any new attacks against the planet. The WRO will focus on assisting with the rebuilding of towns and cities and the people on the planet and we will continue to act to remove the monsters and last links to any of the projects and plans that were hidden under the various side arms of the old Shinra. AVALANCHE remains as the symbol of the good and strength towards the future". Reeve gulped down the last of his coffee and picked up a folder from his desk. "But with the movement forward and changes in lifestyles of some of the members, it is of course more symbolic than practical. G Squad is now the main protector – Guardians of the planet and sworn to uphold the people. All members of AVALANCHE are of course members of G Squad, even though only some of them actually have active participation in the squad. But G squad also comprises some of the best warriors that exist – and the squad will continue to gradually increase as more elite warriors are found. Now, I think we should be heading over to the opening ceremony, the crowd seems to be building and I believe AVALANCHE will be there now."

"Do they know?" asked Rufus. "No" replied Reeve, smiling – "they know the opening of the new training centre will be officially happening in 20 minutes – but they have no knowledge of the special recognition that will be occurring. They are all here however – Yuffie and her husband arrived from Wutai yesterday, along with Tifa and the children. All the others have been here since Friday and of course Vincent is located here permanently. Mrs Elmyra is also here with Barrett – I think this will be one of the happiest moments for her in recent years, although no doubt she will have tears to shed as well. I have also made a suitable recognition of some of the later support from the Turks, although this will be in a separate location within the building".

Rufus nodded, his eyes once again lost in memory of the events. "Well lead the way Reeve – this day is long overdue and at the same time, entirely appropriate". Reeve nodded and walked out of the door, with Rufus following him. They entered the elevator and went down the 30 floors of the main administration building that had been extended several times in the last couple of years. It was the central part of the WRO and security to it was extreme – while the environment was attractive to view and the reception staff welcoming and friendly, it was impossible to access without the required clearance and anyone attempting to get in unofficially had experienced first hand the mistake that was. WRO security guards were highly trained and skilled and the building had separate secure areas that would be protected if required. It was unlikely that the building and its inhabitants would ever be faced with attacks as it had in the past – but the possibility of this happening was always considered on a daily basis and safety was the focus of the security guards.

Arriving at the ground floor, Rufus and Reeve headed out towards the new training areas. The buildings had been finally completed a few months ago and had been equipped to form the training rooms, lecture theatres, exercise quads and staff facilities. Sleeping quarters for all staff and trainees were located nearby and were now inhabited by the new trainees and staff.

Rufus and Reeve entered the large entrance vestibule. It was impressive, made of marble with high ceilings and attractive looking fountains dotted around. The floor was encased in strong, shining tiles that would last many years. The centre of the vestibule housed a large marble building that was covered by thick cloths so no one could see what was inside and surrounded by a metal chain to keep the visitors away until the formal part of the ceremony had been conducted.

As the men approached the centre, they could see the members of AVALANCHE grouped together with friends and children and family, the women talking nineteen to the dozen and laughing, while the men listened and nodded, sometimes smiling at what was said. Rufus headed over to the formal seating at the front of the ceremony area – despite Reeve knowing everything about the man now, the members of AVALANCHE still tended to view him with cool acknowledgement. They were aware that he provided funding to the WRO, but there was still a basis of distrust there since they had been the ones that were involved with the battles that had occurred. While they would be polite in company, when in private Yuffie and Tifa in particular were capable of being quite dangerous towards him, a tendency that usually ensured he had little action around them. The men were generally more accepting, but he knew that if anything happened that looked as if he was responsible, they would not hesitate to – well, that was probably not something that he wanted to think about.

Reeve walked over to AVALANCHE and greeted them all. Yuffie and Tifa both hugged him, pleased to see him after several months and he said hello's to all those gathered with them. He looked at his watch – 5 minutes until the ceremony was due to start. "Can we all please take up positions now – AVALANCE, please seat yourselves on that line of seats over there. Mrs Elmyra, would you please sit with Rufus on those seats opposite. And the rest of your families can they please seat themselves on the front rows over there" said Reeve pointing the seating out and gently starting to move them in to place. The children, Shera and Yuffie's husband walked to the front seating, noticing when they arrived that security guards were discreetly in place. It was obvious that no one was going to be allowed to get close to any of them during the ceremony. Denzel and Marlene had Tifa and Cloud's youngest children, Zoe and Ben, sitting in between them and Yuffie's husband, Arist, held their two year old daughter Sierra on his lap. Shera checked on Zion, Kate, Myra and James – they were looking like angels, which made her wonder what evil they were plotting on carrying out during the speeches.

Members of AVALANCHE headed to the seats allocated to them – Vincent was not overly pleased at facing the entire ceremony guests in this way, but the last few years had seem him change and he had become more skilled at socialising around others, although it was still something that he did as little as possible. Yuffie sat next to him, grabbing his arm and pointing to her daughter. Yuffie had finally lost her crush on Vincent a few years ago, much to his relief. She was now one of his closest friends and Vincent would often visit Wutai to see how she and her husband were going and to provide assistance if required. Any ruling factions that arrived at Wutai in the belief that they could manipulate the young Empress and her husband to follow their wishes found themselves under the close scrutiny of Vincent Valentine, dressed in his red cloak and bandana and with Death Penalty on his hip, as he folded his arms across his chest and openly stared at them with his crimson eyes.

Tifa sat next to Yuffie with Cloud on her other side, as they smiled at their children. Cid was next in the row, with his fingers clenched and moving together. He wished he could have a cigarette in his hand, even if it had to be unlit during the ceremony, but several years of marriage to Shera had taught him to disobey her only if he really enjoyed sleeping on the couch, making his own food and enjoying the glare from her eyes. Barrett was next in the row, smiling at Marlene and then looking softly at Elmyra. Rufus Shinra was talking to her politely and Barrett knew she would be fine sitting there – Rufus was a perfect gentleman in public and Elmyra was enjoying a light hearted conversation with him. Nanaki or Red XIII was seated on a special seat – low enough for him to be able to sit up at the same height as his colleagues, but wide enough to take his feline body comfortably. This was his first visit to the new WRO building in some months, since his role as guardian to Cosmo Canyon took most of his time. Last in the row was seated a rather surprising figure – Cait Sith. He was currently switched off, since Reeve knew that he was likely to get too over excited and the formality of the ceremony required him to be on perfect behaviour.

Reeve glanced up as the last people to be seated on the front row arrived – Tseng, Elena, Reno and Rude from the Turks. Their relationship with AVALANCHE had improved over the years since they fought together against the Jenova clones, but Yuffie was still quite capable of getting in to a heated discussion with Reno if they both had a few drinks.

Reeve glanced at his watch – 10am. Time for the ceremony to begin. He removed his speech from the folder and headed to the lectern to commence the day's proceedings.

"Ladies and gentlemen – welcome to the opening of the new WRO training headquarters. It is with great pleasure that I present the facilities to you today and acknowledge the presence of our new trainees and WRO staff. Following the formal ceremony there will be guided tours of the facilities so that you are able to see what we have achieved in the last two years. I also acknowledge the presence of the media, who are here today to see the facilities at first hand and share them with the people of the planet.

I also thank Rufus Shinra for attending the ceremony today": - Reeve bowed slightly in Rufus's direction – "and am pleased to acknowledge the assistance New Shinra has provided to ensure the facilities are first rate and contain all the top equipment we require." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Vincent's fingers from one of his crossed arms dig in to Yuffie's side – she was quite capable of coming out with something at his comment and with 400 people seated and looking to the front it was not a good impression he would like to see made.

Reeve continued on for 15 minutes, going over the details of the new facilities and what training would be available during each training year.

"Finally, ladies and gentleman, I would like to use this opportunity to formally recognise those that saved this planet and provided us with the opportunity to move forward and embrace the new lives that we have been able to achieve. Had Sepiroth and Meteor not been stopped, the planet would have been destroyed and everyone on the planet would have ceased to exist. The whole world is grateful to AVALANCHE for what they did for us all, at huge risk to themselves. The history of those events has now been written and we all of us have the opportunity to read it and remind ourselves of what our heroes did for us." He paused – the crowd were now looking serious and nodding at his words. "It is a huge honour for us to have all members of AVALANCHE present here today. They were unaware that their contribution was going to be acknowledged during this ceremony, but I know that everyone here today will feel proud and honoured to be here to witness AVALANCHE. The WRO has been pleased to be the organisation to head up this acknowledgement and these medals have been struck in thanks and honour of these wonderful people."

Reeve could see that the AVALANCHE members were looking shocked – they had not expected this to happen. "Members of AVALANCHE, I would ask you to all stand and move forward to me." They all stood up and walked over towards Reeve, looking self conscious at the unexpected event. "I present you all with this Medal of Valor – representing the thanks of the people of this world for the efforts you made and the bravery you showed". Reeve walked along to each member, lifting a gold medal on a ribbon and placing it over their head and shoulders. "I also acknowledge the member of AVALANCHE who is not here with us in body today but is with us always in memory and sentiment. Mrs Elmyra, may I ask you to step forward and receive this Medal of Valor for your daughter, Aeries." Mrs Elmyra gasped – she stepped towards Reeve with tears forming in her eyes and Reeve placed the medal over her head, taking one of her hands softly in his and raising it to his lips. The members of AVALANCHE were all quiet, thinking of their fallen, beloved comrade.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you may all wonder at the reason for the pink ribbon each member of AVALANCHE wears around their upper arm. The ribbons are cut from the hair ribbon worn by their beloved Aeries on the day of her death. AVALANCHE will never forget Aeries and her memory stays with all of them every day even now. As you will know from your reading of the history, Aeries cast Holy shortly before her death. Holy, with the power of Chaos combined, led to the destruction of Meteor and the continuation of Life. It is therefore my great honour to call upon Mrs Elymra to step forward and open the curtains surrounding the centre of this building - Elmyra, would you please pull on these drawstrings here". There was silence as Elmyra moved forward and took hold of the drawstrings, pulling on them firmly. As she did, the curtains swung open at the front and the cloth around the back and sides of the monument fell away. There was a gasp from the crowd, and AVALANCHE and Elmyra looked at what lay beyond the curtains – a beautiful white marble statue of Aeries, 6 foot in height and built upon a black granite base. The statue was superb – it was Aeries to perfection, her beauty and soft features chiselled out finely. To the back of Aeries, large pictures of the rest of the members of AVALANCHE were hung – pictures that depicted them as they were during the time of the battles, dressed in the clothing they wore and with the expressions on their faces. There was silence as the members of AVALANCE and everyone else gazed upon the statue and the pictures, all there thinking back to what had occurred and how and all the events that had unfolded. Reeve could see the tears falling down the faces of Yuffie, Tifa and Elmyra – both in memory of their beloved friend and daughter and in memory of what AVALANCHE had been through.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you – AVALANCHE". Reeve stepped back towards Rufus and the whole crowd rose to its feet, clapping and cheering those in front of them. The applause continued for several minutes – no one wanted to stop their acknowledgement of their heroes. AVALANCHE were silent, all of them were stunned both by the memorial that had been created and by the acknowledgement of the crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen" – gradually the applause came to an end. "This concludes our opening ceremony – refreshments are now being served, following which guided tours around the facilities will be conducted, followed by a luncheon that will be provided here. Members of AVALANCHE will be circulating around the facilities later, but for now I would ask that you allow them some time alone as they reflect on what has occurred. Thank you all for coming today". Reeve bowed to the crowd and stepped back to sit next to Rufus. The crowd once again burst in to applause and then started to disperse from the seats, headed towards the tables of refreshments surrounding the edge of the vestibule as waiting staff stepped forward with trays of drinks to circulate.

Reeve looked over at AVALANCHE – they were standing in a semi circle around the statue of Aeries, with Tifa and Yuffie holding Elmyra close to them. They needed some time alone – both in memory of Aeries and also to come to grips with the level of acknowledgement that had been shown to them today.

"That was truly wonderful, Reeve" said Rufus as he looked across at them. "And now I suppose I had better start circulating and speaking to the media – this is going to be a busy day today". Rufus got up and walked over to circulate. Reeve got to his feet and walked across to Shera and Arist. Shera had tears in her eyes too. "Thank you, Reeve" she said. "That has meant so much to Elymra". Reeve nodded and then smiled at Shera. "So, will you let Cid have a cigarette now to calm himself down?" he asked. Shera gave a crack of laughter and got to her feet. "I think I may be able to make some allowances today" she said. "Come on kids, let's go see what there is to eat" she said, heading over towards a refreshment table that some waiters had just set a short distance away from them, to be used only by AVALANCHE and their families. "Looks pretty yummy from here" said Arist and followed Shera over, making humorous comments to Denzel and Marlene.

Reeve walked over to AVALANCHE. "Where is your acknowledgement, Reeve?" asked Cloud, looking at him. "Ah well, Cait Sith is holding that for us" said Reeve. "I prefer for my involvement to be – more discreet. Now, come over here and indulge yourselves in some of these refreshments – you'll be needing your energy once you start circulating" smiled Reeve.

AVALANCHE moved over to their families and joined them. They knew they were going to be required to circulate and be seen around the new facilities as the tours started and felt it was a small price to be paying in recognition of the acknowledgement they had received that morning. All except Vincent. He remained at the statue, but Reeve could see his glance was resting on that of his own picture on the wall behind it. Reeve walked across to him. "How are you Vincent?" he asked. Vincent glanced at him, before looking once again at his own picture. "I am – thinking of the future, Reeve" he said. "Ah" said Reeve. "You have come a long way from the day you joined them, Vincent". Vincent sighed. "I am aware of that Reeve – and also aware that I still have a way to go. What you did – was kind, Reeve. I didn't require that, but to see it for Elymra, Yuffie, Tifa and Aeries – that I am grateful for". Reeve nodded. He understood the gunman was still entrenched a little in some of his past, although he had finally come to terms with his atonement and said a final farewell to Lucretia three years ago. Reeve's personal opinion was that Vincent needed a woman in his life – he doubted Vincent was the sort to indulge in a number of relationships, but could see that he needed a focus in his life, an ability to learn to love again and experience the joy of having a woman in his life. "I must start the circulating" said Reeve. "I hope you will do some Vincent, it will be helpful for the future of the training facility". With that Reeve headed over towards the media, prepared for the questions he knew they would have for him over the next hour.

Vincent moved over to the refreshment table and grasped a glass of orange juice – more to fill his hand than because he was thirsty. He looked around at the people mingling in the vestibule and noticed that some of the staff had stepped forward to start leading the tours around. Reeve had called on a lot of the administrative staff to help too, since the number of training staff would not be enough to lead the number of tour groups needed. His eyes started to pick out those that he knew would most likely be trainees, who would be commencing tomorrow. Some of them looked as if they might hold the basics required for some of the training courses, but he was keen to see if any potentially elite warriors might be present. Reeve had told him that there was one who looked extremely promising – de Ville. De Ville by all accounts had elite firearms and combat skills and was also very proficient with some blades training. De Ville was not a ninja apparently, but did have some similar skills. Vincent was interested in meeting him and especially in putting him through the high level firearms assessment. Vincent was a member of G Squad, but was also assigned to about two days a week of providing specialist firearms training to the most elite. His title was Firearms Master and he was acknowledged as being the best firearms member of the WRO, New Shinra or any other organisation known.

Vincent wandered over towards a group of trainees. While he had no real interest in having to socialise with anyone here apart from AVALANCHE and their families, he would give the trainees a few words – a huge step forward from how Vincent was when he was first found in the coffin. He still contained Chaos and the other three demons, but was now far more in control of them and had actually developed a better relationship with Chaos in particular. This had stemmed from the moment that he acknowledged Chaos was not inside him through choice – for so long he had been resentful towards his demons, blaming them inwardly. Then for some reason it hit him one day – they had had the possession forced upon them by Hojo. He had gradually started to make some discovery of the demons inside him and one day realisation had hit him – Chaos had been inserted inside him as a means towards helping to save the planet. Chaos had not been asked if he wanted to do this – he had been a violent and angry demon. But he had fought Meteor and won. Through his own choice. In the last few years, Vincent had started to form a gradual relationship with Chaos. They still argued at times, but he was now aware that Chaos did not hate HIM for having been inserted He hated Lucretia and Hojo, but he acknowledged that Vincent was his host and would fight to protect him whenever required.

His gaze found a group of trainee warriors clustered around someone in the middle. He wondered if one of them might be de Ville. As he walked forward, he could see that the centre of the group was two women – two very attractive women, hence the group of men standing around them and vying for their attention. Vincent rolled his eyes – so much for potential elite warriors. He walked over to the group, and suddenly they became aware of his presence and focused on him. To them, he was – Vincent Valentine, one of the most important people in their trainee world. They wanted to be like him and they wanted to impress him. Vincent nodded his head in acknowledgement of them as they crowded around him and began to launch a number of enquiries at him.

After 20 minutes of responding to them and answering their questions, Vincent's head was beginning to ache. He felt he had now spoken more than he had in the last entire month and wanted only to get away back to his quarters, but somehow doubted Reeve was going to let him get away with that. Some of the group suddenly dispersed, heading over to Cloud and Cid – Vincent grinned inside himself, knowing that those two would be getting a little over the conversations too. He let his eyes wander over the final 8 people gathered around him and realised that the two women were still there, now no longer hidden from view by the men. One of them was attractive with long blonde hair and blue eyes, the other – the other burnt an image on Vincent's eyes that he had never expected to occur to him. She had long, very dark brown hair to the middle of her back that was thick and lustrous and wavy. Her eyes were a brilliant green and sparkled with humour, outlined by long, thick, dark eyelashes. Her features were outlined clearly and her mouth held a friendly and interested looking smile. His eyes glanced quickly down her body – she was amazing. She was obviously extremely fit and strong, her figure was – beautiful. She was about 5'9" tall, with a bust that was noticeable and shapely – the perfect size. Her waist was small and her hips were the exactly right width – and rounded slightly as they cast down to her shapely looking thighs. She was turned slightly to one side and he could see her backside too – it was rounded and a perfect shape. Her legs were long and fell to the floor in the most incredible shape. Vincent suddenly felt hot under his collar and glad that he was wearing his cloak to hide his expressions.

Vincent had had no involvement since Lucretia. When he had awoken in the coffin, 30 years after his relationship with her, he had still been enamoured of her and no one else. It had taken him a few years to actually come to terms with the reality – although he had been in love with her and said farewell to her with fond memories, he had come to terms with the fact that she was also a cold hearted bitch, who had used him to an extent to further what she wanted – a better relationship with Hojo. Although she had realised after that she had been wrong and had held regrets for what happened to Vincent forever after, she had nonetheless been solely interested in being able to participate in the experiments with Hojo. Since that time, Vincent had not found another woman to attract him although he had actually considered some one night stands simply to allow him to indulge in his physical sexual activities. However, it was only a consideration – Vincent was not interested in having relations with women, although he did feel a sexual burning inside of him. He had been resolving this simply by masturbating in the shower, needing to climax more and more as he began to rebuild his life.

"Commander Valentine, how are you?" said the blonde extending her hand for him to shake. "My name is Chrissie Buck – I'm enrolled in the WRO Medical Corps course. I'll also be involved in the basic firearms and combat training" she said smiling at him. Vincent extended his hand and shook hers. "Welcome to the WRO" he said. "Do you have any formal medical training?" he asked. Chrissie nodded. "I am a qualified registered nurse now, however I am hoping to extend that and become one of the WRO's emergency medical corps. This is a unique opportunity for me, one that I have been focused towards since I was 19" she said. Vincent nodded, not surprised at what she said – the WRO's emergency medical corps was acknowledged throughout the planet as the best and its members were often sent out with warrior squads as well as involved in rescuing members. "This is my sister Katherine" said Chrissie, turning towards the dark haired woman. "Kate is enrolled in the warrior training" she added. Vincent looked over at Chrissie's sister and extended his hand. "Welcome, Katherine" he said, "I hope you enjoy the training opportunity here". Kate put her hand out and shook his, her skin felt strong and firm but also soft – "thank you Commander, I am looking forward to it immensely" she said in voice that sounded like magic to Vincent's hearing.

Once again Vincent felt glad he was wearing his cloak – after looking at her, and hearing her calm and attractive voice, he was now the happy owner of a huge erection – nothing like this had happened to him since he got out of the coffin and he was now struggling to remain his calm, monotone self. He needed to go back to his quarters – now. "No doubt I will see you in the training facility" he said – "enjoy the rest of the afternoon here now, Misses Buck" he said. Katherine looked at him – "de Ville" she said. "My surname is de Ville".


	2. Chapter 2  The formal trainng commences

Thank you so much to DevilAngelResa19 and kero123 for having taken the time to read and review the first chapter. Knowing what great writers you both are, you have given me great encouragement. I now have several chapters drafted and if you consider I'm coming along ok I will be continuing to post them.

I also found that I made a big booboo and referred to Meteor inside of Omega in part of the chapter – hopefully I will work out how to edit it, I am still getting to grips with how to post online properly so apologies for the mistake.

Many thanks to anyone who bothers to read this chapter and I hope you enjoy it!

**The formal training commences**

The first week of training was now due to start, commencing first of all with breakfast served between 6.30am and 7.15am. Trainees were then expected to report to their tutorial group rooms by 8am, for 30 mins of updates and reviews on the timetables and general discussions. Uniforms would also be inspected. At 8.30am, the trainees headed off to their various training courses with lunch at 12.30pm, with the afternoon's courses commencing at 1.30pm and ending at 5.30pm. Dinner was then served between 6pm and 7.30pm. For those involved in more elite training, such as the medical corps and warrior elites, there were additional classes and research sessions at lunch time and evening and also at the weekend. Then on top of this there was homework and studying for the periodic test sessions.

Vincent was up and dressed, ready to commence the training and assessment sessions he had been assigned to during the first week, to assist with determining the level of courses and training each trainee was suitable for. While firearms training would normally be carried out by the Senior Firearms Trainer and his staff, the week required for them all to be individually assessed and discussed to ensure they were appointed to the correct group. The medical corps would of course be focused on medical training, but they were all also required to undertake basic firearms and combat training to assist with their self defence if required. The rebuilding squads also required this basic training as well as high level physical fitness training so that when they engaged in projects around the cities they would be able to undertake hard work. The warrior squads undertook a higher level of firearms, combat and weapons training. Their role would be to protect as requested by various cities but also to exterminate the huge numbers of monsters that were still to be found on the planet. Finally there were the elite warriors – they would be delegated to whatever tasks were required at the time and they would also lead the warrior squads and assist them with the monster eradication. In special and rare occasions some of the elite would be appointed to G Squad – the highest level protectors in the WRO and New Shinra. Their tasks were not publically stated and they were under the sole direction of the office based G Squad Director Ken Sturge, who reported directly to Reeve and gave no reports to any other members of the executive commission.

Vincent was tired – he had headed back to his quarters yesterday after his experience with Kate de Ville, his erection huge and pressing against his leather pants. Upon reaching his quarters, he had removed his clothing fast and thrown it towards his bed while he headed in to the shower. Standing under the hot water, Vincent had closed his eyes and focused on her physical appearance as he grasped his member in his hand and began to stroke it, firm and fast. The pleasure he felt was amazing – as his climax neared completion, he had been subject to several groans, finally erupting in one of the biggest orgasms he had experienced in the last couple of years. He followed this with another bout this morning when he got up and was hopeful that it meant he would stay softer for the rest of the day.

He had been stunned when Katherine had announced to him that her surname was de Ville. For some reason Vincent had assumed that de Ville was male, possibly because there were no other females in G Squad with the exception of Tifa and Yuffie, however their membership was mainly symbolic and they rarely were involved in any G Squad activities. Knowing that she was de Ville was – erotic in some ways. He knew that he would be closely involved in her firearm training and assessment throughout the training year which meant that he would have the opportunity to view her on a daily basis. Vincent kept shaking his head to himself – he could not believe the involvement his mind had with the thought of her constantly. He decided he'd better get a grip on himself since his activity in the shower was not likely to impress anyone that got to find out about it.

He had dressed in one of his leather suits as usual, with the Cerberus and Death Penalty clipped around his hip and his waist but had decided to leave the cloak off. This was something he had been learning to do, since hiding his face and expression from trainees and colleagues was not something that overly impressed them. He headed towards the breakfast room to go over the day's plans with the other G Squad members.

Daily G Squad members were himself and Cid Highwind – Cid was head of the WRO's airfleet. Although he was based mainly in Rocket Town, he held daily discussions with Reeve and others as required and submitted reports from the aerial activities his squad undertook and he was going to be present in the headquarters this week to help out. Cloud was also going to attend two days per week to assist with the elite weapons training, but would be in Nibelhelm the rest of the week with Tifa and the children. Barret, Nanaki, Yuffie and Tifa would not be present in headquarters or participate in any of the activities unless there was an extreme emergency – AVALANCHE would then take up arms together. Zak Fair, an old friend of Cloud's, was a member of G Squad and so were the Turks, much to most people's surprise. They were based to and fro between WRO and the New Shinra buildings, working closely with Rufus as always. Most often Elena and Tseng would be located with him while Rude and Reno were in the WRO. There were three other members – Troy Hestle, Darren Fenwitch and Kristian Langford. The three of them had been appointed over the last three years following their training and assessment and Vincent was surprised at how well he got on with them.

He walked in to the dining room and headed towards the G Squad table. Cid was there, eating a cooked breakfast – he looked up as Vincent approached and nodded "good morning, Valentine". Hestle, Fenwitch and Langford were up at the counter selecting their breakfast and Cloud was approaching carrying a plate, in deep discussion with Zak. Vincent did not have much need for a large number of meals but had learned that it assisted his team membership with them if he joined them for breakfast. Lunch and dinner were taken whenever anyone had time for it, but the shared breakfast gave them an opportunity for them to sit together and talk. "What is your time frame today, Vincent?" asked Cloud as he reached the table and drew up a chair. Vincent glanced down at his notes again. "First assessment is at 10am, each one lasts 30 minutes" he said. "The last one is at 4.30pm with de Ville and will last an hour with the additional assessment requirements". "Hm, I think I have her weaponry assessment at 10.30am" said Cloud looking at his notes for the day. "By all accounts she's pretty impressive, but we'll see how she goes". "I've got her at 2.30 pm for combat assessment" said Zak. "I assume in between the assessments will be focused on the academic sides – three hours of physical assessment today is going to give us an impression of her strength any way". Vincent and Cloud nodded in agreement. They knew her other assessments would be focused on history, research skills, IT, first aid, materia use and lip reading and sign language. If her training was agreed with G Squad in mind, her efforts would be relentless including evening and weekend classes, although at least a lot of the additional ones would be one on one.

"I notice that Saturday night is going to have a free bar as a welcoming event for trainees over in the bar" said Darren. "Count me in" said Troy with a big grin on his face, Kristian nodding too. "What about you guys?" said Darren. "I'm out" said Cloud, "I'm heading back to Nibelhelm on Thursday afternoon and from then on will be here on Monday and Tuesdays only" he replied as he shovelled some of the bacon and hash browns on to his fork. "I'll be gone on Wednesday night too" said Cid "and won't be back for two weeks until the next Squad meeting – you can contact me on the Highwind if you need me in the meantime" he finished. "Free booze? I'm there" – Reno appeared with Rude at the table. "Some hot babes there I noticed yesterday, so I'm planning on an awesome weekend" he sleazed. The other G Squad members groaned – while Reno might be good at his job, his sex life was nothing to be appreciated. "Just keep your hands off the blonde chick and you'll be fine" said Zak as he leaned over to pour another coffee. "She's in my sights and you won't be enjoying your weekend if you try and get in my way" he stated clearly. Reno rolled his eyes "whatever man, there's plenty there for a free for all" he chided. "What about her sister?" asked Darren. "Man, I've never seen a more attractive woman than her". Kristian and Troy both laughed. "We'll be in direct competition dude, so good luck to the winner – who will be me" said Troy. The men all laughed as they finished their breakfast, Vincent keeping his face down and not saying a word. It had been well over 30 years since he'd chatted up girls in a bar with a view to getting them in to bed and he doubted very much if he'd be successful if in competition against the other guys. But Katherine was – beautiful.

A bell rang out – "7.15am, off they go to get themselves ready for their first assessments" said Darren. "God, I remember having to do that – it felt so hard at the time". "Well now we can relax until 9am" said Troy "the first assessments are not on until then. We're involved with the basic combat and firearm assessments for the medics and rebuild trainees I think, you guys have the warriors with the rest of the trainees". Vincent nodded. "I have elite assessments all day until potential G Squad later this afternoon. Depending on the outcome of the assessments, she may of course just be assigned to one of the warrior squads" he said. Cloud looked up. "I was looking at her initial application with Reeve – she's very high level based on paper, would be good to finally get another G Squad member enlisted." "That is true" agreed Vincent. "Basically there are only five of us – Zak, Darren, Troy, Kristian and myself – who are based here every day and involved in the ongoing projects so an additional member would be an advantage".

G Squad then started discussing some of the current activities they were assigned to before heading off to gather their assessment papers and go to the training rooms and fighting centres they were assigned to for the day.

Vincent glanced at the clock – it was 3.30pm, an hour before he was due to assess Katherine. He had a break for an hour for which he was truly glad – none of the warriors he had assessed had been a particularly impressive level, with the highest of them gaining a level 6 assessment and the rest of them level 5. While it would be sufficient to gain them admittance to the elite warrior squad, if they dropped down at all during the year they would be moved over to the ordinary warrior squad. Level 3 and 4 would gain them admittance to that, but was recognised as fairly basic. Anything below level 3 would see them either offered a place in the rebuilding squad or else their training terminated. Many trainees managed to try and keep themselves assessed well for the first three months, but after that it became harder for them to maintain it. Vincent was not fussed either way – he was interested only in G Squad and potential G Squad trainees.

Getting up, he wandered down the corridor to the staff kitchen and poured himself a coffee. As he stood there drinking it, he heard a group of male trainees walk down the corridor and then stand outside as they gossiped to each other. He couldn't see them but listened to what they were saying, out of boredom more than anything else. "Did you guys see that blonde?" one of them said. "Geez yes, she's hot – I am sure as hell going to make a move on her on Saturday night" another replied. "Ha, you'll be lucky mate – I am so going to get in her pants before any of you guys do" laughed another. Vincent sighed to himself – he could remember some crude comments back from his Turk days, but even those seemed to be rather better than what those guys were saying. "What about her sister, that dark haired girl?" said another "man, she's got to be the hottest babe I've seen in ages. With lips like that, I can tell you where her head's going to be found" he finished up laughing. A few of the other guys laughed too. "Her tits have to be the most suckable I've seen in months – and her ass – man I sure as hell would like to be on top of that one" said another. Vincent clenched his hand so hard that the mug he was holding cracked, with coffee starting to drip out down the side. He emptied it in the sink and threw it in the bin, heading out the door to stand in front of the trainees. "If I ever" he announced in his quiet, monotone voice that seemed to be heard clearly by all those present "hear you talk about female trainees like that again, you will be removed from the WRO immediately" he said. "You will also experience a one on one session with me before you are thrown out of the door. I trust I make myself clear" he finished. The trainees looked at him dumbfounded – "yes, yes Sir" they chorused and made a beeline for the exit from that section of corridor.

Vincent headed back to his firearms range and pulled the various targets out of a file. There were 10 initial ones to start – basic bullseye score cards that would be attached to the movable targets. Once one had been shot, the next one would be attached and moved a further distance back. This would continue until the shooter was unable to score 80% of the bullseye on a particular distance. Once that had been completed the trainee would then undergo a 15 minute movable target practice. The targets would be dummies and would move at fairly quick speed, some together and someone after the other. If the trainee hit a child's dummy by mistake, they failed. If they hit an elderly person's dummy by mistake, they failed. If they failed to hit an assassin thinking it was a member of the public, they failed. Missing monsters at awkward angles also ensured they failed.

After the 15 minutes, they would then demonstrate their ability to undo and reassemble their weapons – plus some that Vincent produced in order to get them to attempt a selection of different types. So far, the only ones in three years to have passed this assessment and continued to maintain it were Darren, Troy and Kristian. All others had failed at some point of their first assessment and continued to fail with any reassessment that they requested. Vincent Valentine was not one to allow any but the best to pass and be entitled to join G Squad and Director Sturge would never accept a member unless Vincent had given it his approval, even if anyone else thought they would be ok.

Vincent heard footsteps heading his way and looked up. Katherine knocked at the door and came in. "Commander, I am reporting for the assessment, Sir" she said in an even tone. Vincent could sense her nervousness – and would show her no special allowance, despite his admiration of her. Only the best could be approved for G Squad. "Come in, Ms de Ville" he said. He handed her a sheet of instructions – "you have five minutes to read this instruction sheet and ask any questions that you may have. After that you will be given a brief reminder at the commencement of each assessment session". Katherine took the sheet from him and nodded, running her eyes over it. Vincent stepped back to give her some privacy so that she could focus her attention on the instructions. He noticed that although she seemed a little nervous, her attitude towards the instructions was calm. She read it through and nodded to herself and then started going over it again.

After five minutes, Vincent stepped forward and held his hand out for the instruction sheet. "Time to commence Ms de Ville – step up to the red line here, please. You need to fire six shots at each of the targets. As each round is fired, the target will be replaced and moved further back. This will continue until you have finished. Are you ready to begin?" he asked. Katherine nodded, taking up her place on the firing line and loading her weapon before holding it by her side in her right hand. Vincent attached the first bullseye sheet and hit the button, sending the target down. Katherine looked at the target and aimed her weapon firing 6 shots consecutively. They each landed right in the middle of the target, as Vincent had expected. He brought the target back and attached the next bullseye and sent it back down the range. Katherine took aim and fired again. This continued for 6 times in a row. As the 7th bullseye was sent inline, Vincent noticed how Katherine changed her stance a little, presumably to assist her in aiming accurately at the target. Once again 6 shots fired down the range and found their mark.

Vincent then attached the 8th bullseye and sent that down. Katherine took careful aim and fired, this time allowing a slight pause and re-aim in between each shot. They all hit the centre of the bullseye again. Vincent was impressed – no information had been provided to her, but all three of the new G Squad members had been appointed with level 8 being considered elite enough. Although a few warriors managed to get to level 6, the increase in the difficulty of achieving levels 7 and 8 was extreme. He attached level 9 and sent it down the range. Katherine now took careful aim and while she did not take too long in firing her shots, she was obviously only doing it when she was ready. He brought the bullseye sheet back and looked at it – 5 shots were dead centre of the target, one was on the edge of the centre and the next ring. The shot that missed the centre meant that this ended her assessment, but Vincent was intrigued to see how well she went and attached level 10 and sent it down. He noticed that she seemed fairly tense now – she probably realised one of her previous shots had not hit dead centre. She took aim and fired another 6 times. The bullseye came back and Vincent removed it. "Thank you, Ms de Ville. You now have 5 minutes rest until the next session commences" said Vincent and walked over towards the assessment folder. He looked at the bullseye sheet in his hand – one shot had hit dead centre, three had been half in the centre and half in the next ring and the final two had been within that ring only. Vincent was impressed – he had not seen a trainee or G Squad member hit this close in the last three years.

Katherine was leaning against the wall, her head downwards as she slowed her breathing down and concentrated her mind on what she was achieving. She took no notice of Vincent, seemingly having been able to lock him out of her thoughts completely. Five minutes ticked over and then Vincent called her over. "Ms de Ville, you now have 15 minutes to circulate twice around the target scene inside. You must avoid shooting innocent victims and succeed in shooting attackers. Your time commences now". Katherine pulled open the door and went inside. Vincent took up a view in front of the screens that were linked to the cameras inside the target scene. For 12 minutes he watched Katherine circulate around. She was incredible, way beyond what Vincent had anticipated. Normally when undertaking this test the trainees would look at what was coming and try and jump to either side while they decided whether or not to shoot. Katherine was fully enhanced beyond this. As the first target appeared, she dropped and rolled over, her gun maintaining aim the entire time as she assessed the target. It was a child – Katherine rose and continued down. Suddenly there was a roar and a huge monster lunged towards her, with two others following behind it. Katherine did not hesitate, she dropped and rolled, firing as she went and then rose with one foot on a case which she used to propel herself up in the air, twisting to bounce her legs off of the wall and turn in mid air, firing another shot in to the head of the large monster and two more in to each of the monsters behind it. She maintained this as she moved around the scene twice and then returned to the exit door. She had hit correctly every attack target and not fired on any innocent target. The circulation had taken her 12 minutes, one of the fastest ever recorded.

As she came out, Vincent looked at her. "You now have 5 minutes rest until the third and final assessment session begins" he said. Katherine dropped to her knees, her eyes closed, as she focused on her breathing to try and regain her breath a bit and calm her chest. Vincent walked across to the final area. As the five minutes ended he called her over. "Commence the final assessment now please Ms de Ville. You will start with dismantling your own weapon completely and then reassemble it and load it. As soon as you have completed this, you will move down the table and commence on the next weapon. Please start now". Katherine pulled her weapon from its holster on her thigh and disassembled it in a matter of seconds. She then reassembled it and loaded it and returned it to her holster, with the safety catch equipped. It was evident that her weapon was as familiar to her as Cerberus was to him. She moved on to the next 8 weapons, disassembling them and reassembling them all and loading them and equipping the safety clip. It was obvious she was fairly unfamiliar with some of the machine gun type weapons, although she did manage to accurately complete the task.

"Your assessment is now complete Ms de Ville, thank you for your time" said Vincent. Katherine looked at him – "I failed the first session didn't I?" she said. "In what way?" asked Vincent. "I didn't complete level 9 100% and I failed at level 10" stated Katherine – he could tell she was annoyed at herself from the way she spoke. "You completed level 9 satisfactorily, Ms de Ville, although your final shot was partially in the next ring which meant that level 9 is your assessment limit. You didn't pass level 10, although I did allow you to undertake it" concluded Vincent. "So – I need to practice more if I want to be assessed as ready for G Squad training levels" she finished. Vincent raised his brows. "Ms de Ville the highest level that existing G Squad members have reached, with one exception, is level 8. You have exceeded that level. The only one to achieve level 10 in any organisation is myself" said Vincent. "I think you can safely assume that you have passed your assessment session today. You are now finished for the day and can return to your quarters and have dinner. Good afternoon, Ms de Ville" said Vincent and he turned away and walked over to the assessment folder to sign his reports and insert them in the file. Katherine looked at him in stunned surprise – then opened the door and headed outside to make it to her quarters. Vincent expected her to no doubt hit her bed for a rest for the next hour before she was able to head down to the dining room and eat.

He gathered up his assessment folder and headed back towards the Senior Firearms Trainer's room. A smile hit his face as he walked along. He had to confirm the assessment results with Cloud and Zak too, but he was pretty certain that Katherine was now going to be under his personal instruction during the next 12 months.


	3. Chapter 3 Training needs a social life

Shrigo – Thanks heaps for your review – glad you have enjoyed it so far. Since you told me to update ASAP chapter 3 is now here :)

DevilAngelResa19 – thanks again for taking the time to read and review and good luck with your exams :)

I hope you all enjoy chapter 3 and that it is flowing well. I am continuing to draft the next chapters so that I keep my mind on how the story is developing (up to chapter 12 now) and these will normally be posted once a week.

**Chapter 3 Training needs a social life**

The alarm clock sounded in the room and Kate sighed and pulled her pillow over her head. 7.30am on Saturday morning after the week she'd had was so not fun. Reaching out with her hand she hit the snooze button and rolled over again to get some more sleep. The alarm was ringing again in what seemed like seconds – groaning she rolled over again and pushed herself up on to her arms and reached over to turn the alarm clock off. Gah, she was so tired. The assessment week seemed to have been ongoing and even waiting in between the time slots had made her feel tired as she'd had nothing to do but sit outside of the assessment rooms and wait.

Yawning she threw the bed covers aside and got up, heading towards the shower. Hopefully she'd be able to wake herself up fairly soon. Stepping in to the shower she turned it on hard so that the hot water was bouncing off her body like hail stones. After standing with her arms against the walls and her head bent under the spray for a few minutes, she began to feel a bit more awake. Reaching up she turned the strength of the spray back down and switched it across from hot to warm. This was beginning to feel better already she thought, and reached over for her shampoo.

After her shower, Kate peeked out of the curtains to check the weather – the sun was already out and the air warming up. Kate decided to take advantage of this lovely weekend weather since for once she was not having to dress in her leather warrior uniform, and opening her drawers found a pair of turned up, purple shorts with a tie around the waist and a white short sleeved tee shirt with a collar and V split neckline. She brushed her hair out, intending to let it dry naturally for once – due to the early start in the week she'd had to use a hair dryer to part dry it before breakfast, but she hated to use it on her long hair so often. Gathering her hair back in a loose pony tail, she wrapped a scarf around it to hold it in place and padded over to her room's kitchenette.

Breakfast was served in the dining room from 7.30am to 9am on Saturdays, but she wasn't really in the mood for talking with others. Flicking on her kettle, she opened her fridge and found some strawberries and mangoes – that would be fine for her breakfast she decided. She cut up her fruit and made a cup of tea and headed over to her table to eat. On the way over, she suddenly noticed an envelope had been slipped under her door. Picking it up she moved on to the chair and slid it open to read it.

It was a copy of her overall assessment report with a note attached to it. Reading the note she read "Dear Ms de Ville – congratulations on your assessment outcome. I am pleased to confirm that you have been admitted to the G Sqaud training program in addition to your Elite Warrior training. Your timetable will be available for collection from the training reception area after 9.30am on Saturday morning. Regards, Ken Sturge, Director of G Squad".

Kate took a few moments for this to register - she'd been accepted as a potential member of G Squad! Now she had the additional training to focus on over the next three months to see if she was able to make the grade for the next stage. In addition, she had to maintain her elite training as if she didn't make it to the next stage of G Squad she would remain in the Elite Squad training program and hopefully be appointed to the squad at the end of the year.

Turning the note over, she looked at her assessment results. She was pleased to see she'd achieved high level pass results on each of her subjects in addition to passing the assessments on firearms, combat and weapons that she had undertaken with the members of G Squad, Commanders Valentine and Strife and Captain Fair. All of a sudden Saturday morning was starting to seem a bit more promising.

Her phone started to ring and as she caught it up in her hand, she saw it was her sister, Chrissie, calling her. "Rising Sun Wutain Restaurant, Empress of Wutai speaking" she announced in an accurate sounding Wutainese accent. "Ha ha, very funny clever clogs" said Chrissie. "What are you doing at the moment, Kate?" "Well, I was having a nice quiet breakfast, with no sound or people within a mile radius and then suddenly I got tracked down via my phone" she replied. She heard a snort down the phone and could tell Chrissie was rolling her eyes at her. "Since you seem to be auditioning for some comedy show, I am assuming that you have received your assessment results and passed?" asked Chrissie. "How did you guess?" Kate said chuckling.

"Annnddddd?" said Chrissie, holding her fingers crossed. "I got in to the G Squad training program!" crowed Kate, with obvious joy in her voice. "Oh Kate, I am so pleased for you, that is awesome! Have you rung mum and dad yet to tell them?" asked Chrissie. "Not yet, I only opened it a few minutes ago – I'm still floating on air I think". "Well make sure you call them soon, I know they knew you would get the results this morning and knowing dad, he's been sitting up since 5am waiting for the call" said Chrissie. "Ha, you really think dad would be out of bed on a Saturday morning before 9am?" laughed Kate. "Ah true" said Chrissie, "but then again, mum will be and since dad will do what mum tells him to do, I assume they will both now be up and within range of the phone, just in case you think to call some time before Monday" she laughed. "Point taken – I'll make a coffee and give them a call. What are you doing this morning anyway?" Kate replied. "Well, having got my results yesterday as you know, I am going to go and drink coffee and eat expensive, fattening cakes in the cafe next to the training centre – want to come?" asked Chrissie. Kate laughed and glanced at her watch, it was now 9am. "Ok Chrissie, I have to go over and pick my timetable up at 9.30am and need to go over it for a bit, so how about I meet you over there at 10.30am?" she asked. "10.30am is perfect, I'll see you there – oh and if you're calling mum and dad now, text me when you are done so I know it's my turn to call them" said Chrissie. "Will do, see you later" said Kate and hung up.

Kate wandered back over to the kitchenette and made a coffee, then returned to the table and called her parents on her phone. While they were technically her foster parents, she usually only referred to them as her parents and mum and dad – she was close to them both and they loved her as much as they loved their natural daughter Chrissie. Kate's parents had mysteriously disappeared when she was 11 and had never been heard of since. No trace had been left of their whereabouts or the reason they had disappeared. Kate had spent the first 12 months going through a number of family friend homes while the Police were searching for her parents and in the end had been placed in to foster care, taken in permanently by Chrissie's parents Elizabeth and Edwin Buck until either her parents were found or she reached 18. Her parents had not been found and her foster parents had never even considered her moving out when she was 18 – as far as they were concerned, she was their daughter and her home would be with them always.

"Junon home for Ignored Parents" said an answering voice. Kate burst out laughing down the phone. "Morning dad, how are she said?". "Dad" said the voice – "dad – you know, I seem to recall being called that once by two devoted daughters who thought that I was the best man in the whole world" said her dad sadly. Kate heard an extension being picked up "Edwin, behave yourself or else you will be taking me clothes shopping this morning" said her mother's voice. "Yes dear" said her dad in a humble voice. Kate burst out laughing down the phone again – "dad, what are you on?" she said. "Well, hopefully your phone contact list" he quipped back. Her mother sighed. "Good morning Kate darling" she said "sorry about your dad, I made him get up for breakfast at 8am and he's not forgiven me yet she said". "7.43am actually" came the sound of the pained male voice. Both Kate and her mum started laughing again. "Now dear, behave while Kate tells us her news" said Elizabeth – Kate could tell she was smiling down the phone as she said it.

"I got accepted on the G Squad training program!" Kate said proudly. "Oh my dear that is wonderful news" said her mum, "we are so proud and happy for you". "We are indeed my dear" said her dad "but we are also not surprised – they were bound to see how wonderful you are". Kate started to speak again and they listened about the events of the assessment week and then Kate read them the note from the Director of G Squad and the assessment results. "That is wonderful dear, we really are pleased for you" said her dad. "You've worked so hard in the last few years and the week itself has obviously also been very demanding – you deserve this outcome" he concluded. "I agree darling" said her mum "and we look forward to hearing how you go". "Thanks, mum and dad – I'm so excited right now. The next three months are going to be hard work, but if I pass this stage, I'll get admitted to stage two, which means I will actually be working alongside of G Squad for the following three months before my next assessment" she explained.

"Oh, sorry I am going to have to go now, its 9.25am and I have to pick my new timetable up at 9.30am". "That's fine dear" said her mum, "it's been wonderful hearing your news and we hope it all goes well for you next week". "We do indeed, take care, darling – and tell that sister of yours to get on her phone" said her dad. "I will dad, she asked me to let her know when we'd finished talking – love you both, and talk to you next weekend" said Kate and hung up. As she pulled a pair of sandals on her feet, she sent a quick text message to Chrissie "Your turn" and then headed out the door towards the training reception area.

Arriving at reception Kate joined the queue and was soon asking for her new timetable. It was contained within a few fairly detailed pages, leading Kate to suppose the next three months were going to be as intensive as she'd assumed. Walking back to her quarters she had a quick glance down at the time table – as she thought, the academic and practical subjects remained the same as the elite warrior program, however the fighting subjects were given different times with the members of G Squad who had given her the initial assessments. The only exception was her weapon classes which were with a Senior Trainer on the days Commander Strife was not on site. In addition there were some additional research and history classes in the evenings and a two hour materia class on Saturday mornings at 9am. Over all, Kate felt that she'd done rather well in the overall scheme of things – her normal days remained at 8am to 5.30pm and her evening classes were from 7pm to 9pm, three nights a week. Of course she would have some private research and homework to get done the rest of the time, but she felt she could have done a lot worse.

The only problem that she could really see related to her weapons and materia. It was obvious from the notes she'd been given that she would be expected to have some materia items available to her to use with her weapons and this was not going to be cheap. The weapons she owned had belonged to her parents and were fairly good quality, although they were not the best weapons they had owned, all of which had disappeared along with them, together with the materia they had. Kate had not had much knowledge of materia back then and had no idea what her parents had actually owned or what they used it for. Although her foster parents were very generous towards her and Chrissie, they were not rich and she doubted whether she could reasonably ask them to help her out with buying any items, she didn't even really know what she should buy. All of her weapons had materia slots on them but she had never used any. It was really only something that elite warriors used as far as she was aware.

She was walking with her head down and so was unaware of who was coming towards her. "Good morning, Ms de Ville" said a male voice. Looking up she saw Commander Valentine coming towards her, with a short and very attractive woman next to him, who looked very familiar to Kate. She quickly drew herself up to attention. "Good morning, Commander" she said saluting him neatly. "I gather you have received your results now" said Vincent. "Yes Sir, I have and I've been collecting my new timetable for next week" replied Kate. "Good, good – do you have any questions about it that I can help you with?" asked Vincent. "No Sir, unless – well I'm not sure what the requirement is for materia" replied Kate, her face going rather red. "I've not been in a position to use it before and I'm not sure what I need" she explained. "I understand" replied Vincent, "I'll put together a basic list for you and let you have it – I can go over its use with you on Monday during our first class" he said. "Thank you, Sir, I would really appreciate that" said Kate.

"Mmmm materia" said the dark haired woman next to Vincent – "oh, how I miss my materia hunting". Kate gave more attention to the woman and then realised who she was – "shit", thought Kate to herself, "how the hell could I not have recognised her". Turning towards the Empress of Wutai, Kate bowed her head low. Speaking fluently in Wutain with a native sounding accent, Kate said "Good morning Empress, it is an honour to meet you". Yuffie looked both surprised and impressed. Speaking in Wutain herself, she replied "you speak fluent Wutain Ms de Ville, yet I assume from your appearance you are not actually of Wutain descent?". "No My Lady", replied Kate "however I spent several years visiting Wutai with my parents when they needed to go there for work purposes". "Ah –what work did they do?" asked Yuffie. "I am not entirely sure My Lady since I was only 11 when my parents passed away, however I believe it was something to do with the Wutain Army" replied Kate. "Really?" said Yuffie, "what were their names?". "Jessica and Alexander de Ville, My Lady" said Kate. "I see" said Yuffie. "Well, it has been nice meeting you Ms de Ville" said Yuffie – "Vincent, I think we need to head across to Reeve or else Rufus Shinra will be driving him to distraction by now" she said. Vincent rolled his eyes at her – her snipe at Rufus was quite obvious. "Indeed, Yuffie – I'll see you on Monday for class Ms de Ville" said Vincent and he and Yuffie continued on their way towards headquarters.

Glancing at her watch, Kate realised she needed to get a move on or else Chrissie would be waiting for her. Tucking her paperwork under her arm she started to jog towards her quarters and ran up the steps to her room. It was in the back of her mind that the Empress seemed to have wanted to move on fairly quickly as soon as Kate had revealed her parent's names, however she was probably mistaken – the Empress had indicated that she and the Commander were on their way to meet with Commissioner Reeve and Rufus Shinra. Dropping her paperwork on to her desk, she grabbed her wallet and headed off again to go and meet her sister.

Vincent and Yuffie spent what was to Yuffie an entirely satisfactory hour of sarcastic comments aimed at Rufus Shinra. Vincent held his peace – since it was Reeve's meeting, he let him deal with the Empress's usual anti Rufus attitude realising that Yuffie would in fact do what had been suggested by Rufus since it would benefit Wutai. He rather got the impression that Rufus realised this too and suspected that Rufus was actually able to extract some humour from Yuffie's attitude. Vincent had no illusions why Yuffie's husband Arist had suggested to Yuffie that it would probably be better for him to stay in Wutai and oversight the matters currently under discussion, with Yuffie asking Vincent to accompany her. The weekend of the opening ceremony had granted Arist the opportunity of escorting Yuffie wherever she wanted to go, which just seemed to involve wherever Rufus was. Vincent could feel a certain sympathy towards Arist – much as he adored his wife, having to witness both her and Rufus in discussion over a whole weekend was enough to drive any sane person mad. Since Yuffie was only staying overnight Arist had had no qualms in suggesting Vincent accompany her to the meeting – had the visit been of any longer duration, Arist would have accompanied her and brought Sierra without a second thought.

"Well that's that over" said Yuffie "now I can concentrate on the main focus of this trip and hit the shops after lunch". "If you think I'm accompanying you on a shopping trip, you can think again" responded Vincent. Yuffie laughed – "but Vinnie!". Vincent rolled his eyes again – one of several times in the last hour. "It's ok" laughed Yuffie "I'm actually meeting Elena for lunch soon and then the two of us are going shopping this afternoon and having an early dinner before she has to head back over to New Shinra for some reception this evening" said Yuffie. "What about this evening?" queried Vincent. "I'm free, so I thought I might hit the bar event that I heard Reeve mention earlier on" said Yuffie. "Not on your own you won't" said Vincent, wondering to himself whether Yuffie would ever really appreciate the fact that she was now the Empress of Wutai when she was looking to let her hair down. Yuffie started to open her mouth to respond but Vincent beat her to it. "No, Yuffie – Arist would not be impressed to learn that you had gone clubbing in some training facility bar on your own" stated Vincent, knowing that "what Arist might think" was one of the few things Yuffie would generally listen to. Much as he really did not want to be socialising in the training bar he also understood his responsibilities – yes, he had come such a long way since they found him in the coffin 6 years ago.

"Ring me from the car when you are on your way back and I will meet you and escort you back to your quarters and then to the training bar" stated Vincent. Yuffie sighed – "ok Vinnie – and thanks. By the way – why is Ms de Ville at the WRO?". Vincent glanced at her – he had noticed how she had quickly moved on when she heard who Katherine's parents were. "Ms de Ville is enrolled in the elite warrior program and the G Squad training program" he replied. "She's a warrior too?" asked Yuffie. "She is" he replied – "although I'm not sure who the "too" refers to. "Oh, just figure of speech Vinvin, figure of speech – I must go and get ready Elena will be here to pick me up soon" she said, giving Vincent her usual big hug around his waist and then hurrying off towards her guest room. Vincent watched her until she reached her quarters and disappeared inside. "And I wonder what you really meant by that, Yuffie" he thought to himself, quite determined that he would find out before the Empress returned home the following morning.

That evening Reeve arrived at the training bar just after 7pm, determined to circulate for an hour or so amongst the trainees before he headed off to the Opera with Rufus for a late night production. He had hoped that some more of the Senior Staff would be present, however it had turned out that it was the birthday of the wife of one of the staff and several Senior Staff members had already accepted a dinner invitation with their own wives and husbands. He was expecting Zak Fair and the three more recent members of G Squad to be present and had no doubt that Reno and Rude would also be present – Reno to chat up whatever women he could find there and Rude to make sure he behaved himself. He found that several trainees were already there so he fetched a beer from the bar and started to wander around and talk to them.

After about 40 minutes, Reeve noticed Yuffie walk in, accompanied by Vincent who for once was dressed in jeans and a casual, blue cotton shirt and casual shoes. His hair was tied at the back in a black leather thong and he suspected that Yuffie was responsible for it. Having caught sight of him Yuffie headed over while Vincent went to the bar, joining them a few minutes later carrying some kind of vodka drink for Yuffie and a beer for himself. Reeve really did find it hard now to remember Vincent exactly as he had been 6 years ago – to see him accompanying a female friend to a bar dressed in casual clothes and drinking beer was something that Reeve had never thought would happen. He realised however that it was quite likely that Vincent would disappear to a dark section of the bar and remain there lounging and keeping an eye on Yuffie, once she found some people to drink with that he thought were acceptable.

After they had been chatting for a while it was time for Reeve to make his exit, so he said goodbye to Yuffie and nodded to Vincent before heading out of the door. Yuffie had somehow managed to get another drink in her hand and was looking around the bar for some soul mates to party with. Zak suddenly arrived at her side. "Yuffie my dear Empress, if you love me, go over there and get rid of that crowd of guys that are surrounding the woman I want to chat up" he said placing an arm around her and kissing her cheek. Yuffie laughed – she got on well with Zak and being asked to intervene in his chat up plans was right up her street.

"Which one?" she asked looking around – "oh I can see, that woman with the dyed red hair and puce coloured dress – of course, follow me!". "Yuffie, you dare!" said Zak with a horrified look on his face. Yuffie smirked "but Zak, she seems so right for you!". "I'm sure that she is a wonderful woman, all women are wonderful of course" said Zak looking innocent – "but the one I want is the one currently knee deep in about 20 guys over at the side of the room " he said pointing. Yuffie looked across and caught a glimpse of a blonde woman laughing and in mid conversation with another woman. "Ah – you mean the one next to Ms de Ville over there" she said. She noticed as soon as she mentioned that name that Vincent's attention was caught – he turned his head around and looked across at Katherine. Yuffie had learned a little tact now where the men in her life were concerned, although this did not mean she was not going to be on the phone to Tifa in the morning from the looks of it. "Follow me this way and learn the benefits of ruling a kingdom" she replied, grabbing another drink of vodka from the table behind her and heading over.

With both Vincent and Zak behind her, Yuffie had no problem at all in making a beeline through the crowd of men standing around the women. "Ms de Ville, nice to see you again" said Yuffie breezing up. Katherine turned, bowing to her once again. "My Lady" she acknowledged and then turning to the blonde woman next to her said "My Lady, may I introduce my sister, Ms Christine Buck". "Delighted to meet you Ms Buck" said the Empress and flicked her eyes across the men standing around, all of whom had by now realised who she was.

"Gentleman, I am sure you will understand our wish for some private conversation while my body guards keep watch" she said smiling at them. While none of them wanted to move away, they had no choice – the Empress of Wutai had made it clear she wanted them to leave and she had Commander Valentine and Captain Fair standing at her back. As they all moved away, Yuffie turned her head around to Zak slightly and whispered "oh, you so owe me Zackie babe" before turning back to the girls and asking them both to sit. "Oh and please call me Yuffie this evening, since I am out socialising for fun" Yuffie stated. Katherine nodded "very well – Yuffie" she said, smiling at Yuffie as she said it. Within a few minutes, the three women were deep in conversation and their laughter was obvious – they had obviously hit it off and the two girls had accepted Yuffie's need to be one of them for tonight.

Just then Darren, Troy and Kristian wandered across to say hello and Yuffie immediately saw how she could use them to create the situation she was after. Within a few minutes and without anyone other than her really noticing, she had managed to get them all sat how she wanted them. Darren and Troy were sat to her right, Kristian to her left with Zak next to him and Chrissie next to Zak, with Kate and lastly Vincent flowing around the table. Zak was already in mid chat up line with Chrissie and the three guys next to Yuffie were listening to some of her stories and laughing – Kate was seated perfectly, able to listen and join in conversations with them or with Chrissie if she wanted to – but quite able to politely ignore them and talk to Vincent instead if she preferred. As Yuffie chatted she flicked her eyes towards Kate and Vincent occasionally and was quite convinced she was right – Vincent was interested in Kate and not due to her inclusion on the G Squad training program. If anything, that was simply an additional benefit.

Vincent turned his face slightly towards Kate – "I hope Yuffie did not interfere with your plans for tonight, she was keen to meet you and your sister when she saw you both here" said Vincent. "Not at all, we were wondering how we were going to get rid of all those guys without being rude" laughed Kate "and Yuffie is delightful". "The two of you and your parents are from Junon, are you not?" asked Vincent. Kate proceeded to launch in to a description of her parents and their home and talk about Junon. Vincent was glad, while he really wanted to sit and listen to her, making small talk was not something he was any good at – at least, not yet where Kate was concerned – and he was beginning to feel as if he'd already used up his conversation skills.

As their conversation proceeded, Vincent found he was able to make the odd comment and encourage further conversation from her. It was obvious that since he was her Commander and she was now part of the G Squad training program, she thought nothing strange about him asking a few questions and expecting her to give him some background on her and her sister. After the conversations around the table had been flowing for a while, the DJ grabbed the microphone and announced that the karoke would be starting in ten minutes and that those wanting to enter needed to look at the song book and send in their form. Yuffie squealed in joy and sent Darren up to grab the book and some forms for them.

"Ooooh yes, let's hit it!". Vincent silently groaned to himself. "What do you want Hellmasker?" he asked. "Karoke! Get your song selected now!" replied Hellmasker. "Not in a million years, you egotistical nightmare" responded Vincent. In the back of his mind he could hear Chaos and Death Gigas laughing while Galian was panting in a chuckle too. "How about a nice serenade, host?" asked Chaos chortling. Vincent rolled his eyes to himself – the biggest downside to his demons was that they could access some of his thoughts, especially Chaos who was obviously quite aware that Vincent was attracted to Katherine and had no doubt made the others aware of it too. "You were always on my mind! You were always on my mind!" – suddenly the three demons started chorusing together and then he could feel them rolling around laughing their heads off.

Yuffie looked over and could tell from the way he was silently looking down in concentration that he was talking to his demons. "Hellmasker want to join in?" she asked grinning. Vincent looked up at her and scowled – she could always tell when he was talking to them. "Don't encourage him Yuffie – he's bad enough as it is" he replied. Reaching forward, he picked up his beer and got up to wander across to the back of the room – there was no way he was going to sit next to Katherine with his demons chortling in his mind and winding him up.

"Aww sorry host, we didn't mean to cut you out" laughed Hellmasker. Vincent ignored him and glanced back across at Katherine. She and Chrissie were looking at the song book with Yuffie and making some choices – "so, she obviously sings somewhat" he thought to himself. The Karoke started soon after and the first few hit the tracks – Vincent knew there would be a lot more later once more alcohol had been consumed. Yuffie stood up and took her place on the small stage and sang a rock n roll number – quite well too, Vincent knew her voice was not at all bad. Then Chrissie took her turn and belted out an old Madonna song – again, not bad. Then Katherine headed up and Vincent wondered what kind of song she would go for. He was surprised when she started on an old Cher number but then stood open mouthed while she sang it – her voice was amazing. He wondered what other types of music she enjoyed singing.

As she made her way down from the stage, there was a sudden commotion to the side of her. Vincent noticed two of the male trainees who he was aware had already had a confrontation after one of the combat assessments – now they'd both been drinking and had allowed things to get out of hand. He started to make his way across to them when one of them was hit around the stomach and ploughed backwards, directly in Katherine's path – it looked like he was going to smack in to the side of her hard and knock her down. She was slightly too far away from Vincent for him to be able to make it to her side in time and fury ripped through him. Just as he thought they were going to make contact, Vincent saw another person appear in between the drunk and Katherine – it was Rude. The drunk came flying back and hit his chest hard on – and then dropped to the floor as Rude stayed standing there not even swaying on his feet. Without saying a word, Rude reached down and scruffed him by the back of his neck and started striding towards the exit, pausing for two seconds to make a similar scruff around the back of the neck of the other drunk. He then continued to the door, which Reno had open for him already and the two of them disappeared outside.

Katherine made her way back to their table with Vincent appearing behind her. "Are you ok Kate?" asked her sister, anxiously. "I'm fine Chrissie, thanks to Rude he didn't touch me" she said, smiling at her sister to stop her from worrying. Vincent could tell that she was never the less a little disturbed by what had happened, obviously she had not expected that sort of behaviour to occur in the training bar especially only after the first week there. Yuffie laughed "I don't think they'll be here making that mistake again" she said. "Reno and Rude are probably not the best two to have tell you off after that kind of incident". Vincent couldn't disagree with that – while the other senior staff would no doubt have taken them down to the holding cells for some cooling off and then given them a verbal laceration, Reno and Rude were more likely to deal with the incident directly. He had no doubt both of the trainees would be hobbling around the following day regardless of any formal processes. It was also likely that they would both be given verbal warnings that would be once only – any further incidents and the trainees would be removed from the WRO.

The rest of the trainees in the bar were over the incident and the Karoke started up again. Vincent returned to his seat next to Katherine. The girls were chatting again and it was obvious to Vincent that they had actually all enjoyed each other's company, which pleased him. While Yuffie's opinion was not going to influence his decisions in any way, having her like both Chrissie and Katherine did mean that it would be easier to engineer a few opportunities down the track. Vincent was not stupid, he knew that Yuffie probably could read him better than anyone else and he was quite sure that she had picked up on his interest in Katherine, although she had not shown any indication of it. Zak's interest in Chrissie was of course obvious to anyone within a 10 metre radius and it would appear that Chrissie was also equally interested in him, although she clearly had no intention of being separated from her sister during the evening.

Yuffie looked at her watch "oh well, it's 11.30pm" she said "and I have a flight at 9am tomorrow so I think I will be heading off now. It was a great evening ladies, I look forward to catching up with you again next time I'm here – oh and let's exchange numbers before I go". The girls nodded and the three of them proceeded to add phone numbers to their phones before Yuffie grabbed her bag and said good night to them all. Vincent stood up and came across to her "I'll see you back to your room Yuffie" he said. Yuffie grinned at him and wrapped her hands around his claw arm as they headed to the door. "That was a fun night Vinnie" she said "and I think Zak may have just scored an actual girl friend rather than flirtation". "Possibly" said Vincent as they walked through the doors and headed towards Yuffie's quarters. "And now you can tell me what you meant earlier on about Katherine and her parents" he said abruptly. Yuffie looked up at him. "Damn, you never miss a thing do you Vinnie" she replied. Vincent didn't say anything but continued walking while he waited for her to reply. "Ok I'll tell you what I know when we get back to my room – I don't want us to be overheard". Vincent nodded and the two of them walked on to her quarters.

Once inside Vincent settled on her couch, she sat next to him, fiddling with her fingers a bit. "Ok – but bear in mind Vinnie that this happened when I was about 9 and some of it I did not really understand until some years later. For a start, although Katherine is only two years older than me I have never seen or heard of her before – although from what she said, it's obvious that she did spend quite a lot of time in Wutai – so bear in mind that children were often not mentioned in court circles. Around the time I was 6 or 7, Shinra started to become more interested in what was happening in Wutai and Shinra representatives were appointed to visit in Wutai and engage in discussions with not just my parents and their advisers, but members of the army and other prominent citizens. Some of the Turks were also present, although this would have been during the time you were in your coffin.

Yuffie paused for a moment while she got her thoughts in order. "Two very brave and very strong warriors were appointed to work in Wutai with the Wutain Army – Jessica and Alexander de Ville. I don't know how their appointment occurred or what happened when they first got there, but I know that by the time I was 9 Jessica de Ville was a close friend of my mother's and the de Ville's were well represented amongst the ranks of warriors. Shinra then announced that Wutai should cease its use of materia – my mother was opposed to this, but my father agreed to a process for it to start being removed from the lower ranks of the army and gradually its removal became expanded throughout Wutai. My mother still opposed this and refused to let go of her materia despite my father's persuasion. As she was the Kisaragi line Empress he did not have the position to actually remove hers himself, however he was able to ensure that hers became the last materia that was left. Fearing that he would eventually come up with a way to ensure she lost it, my mother actually hid her main materia in the Leviathan cave – this was known only to the Priest of the Temple and to myself, although I did not really realise the significance of it at that the time".

"The de Villes were completely opposed to the Wutain warriors losing their materia and had been outspoken against the proposal right from the start. Once it became obvious it was going to proceed, they realised that to speak against it again would only result in their removal from Wutai and their inability to do anything to help the Empress. Instead, they fell silent on the matter, continuing to work alongside the Army and the Empress. The next bit I only found out several years later and I am honestly not sure how many do know, or if that includes Katherine. One night the de Villes met in secret with my mother and brought with them a huge supply of materia that was to be passed out amongst the senior warriors and used by them to defend Wutai should the need arise. I think the de Villes had realised by now what Shinra's intent against Wutai was and they were doing all that they could to help the Empress against them. However my mother was unable to come to them at the appointed time due to another arrival in Wutai – Sepiroth had arrived with a large group of SOLDIERS. As you know, my mother was killed by Sepiroth in my defence and he left the area laughing. When the de Villes realised something bad was happening, they attempted to – well I'm not really sure exactly what, I don't think anyone does. However, they got caught with the supplies of the materia that they had brought and there was no doubt that they had been working against Shinra in the end".

"They disappeared, although most people thought that they were still alive somewhere – all their weapons and the materia disappeared with them. I'm guessing that they had left Katherine back in – hmm not even sure where they were based to be honest – and only the two of them went to Wutai that night and told no one of their plans. As to what happened to them – again I'm guessing – either Shinra caught them and took them away for punishment, in which case they may well be dead now, or else some of the Wutain warriors helped them escape. If that was the case, I could understand them not coming forward to claim Katherine back then as if they had done so Shinra would have been aware and would have taken them and most likely Katherine too. It's possible that if they were alive, they kept away from Katherine as doing that would have been the only way to offer her any protection from Shinra. If that is right, I have to admit I have no idea why they did not come forward in the last few years. Looking at what happened, it is most obvious that they were captured and subsequently executed, but I do know that both Gorky and Chekov didn't believe that was the case, although I've never actually asked them about it all." Yuffie looked up at Vincent. "I've had no reason to Vincent – like I said, I was 9 when it happened and although I heard a bit more in later years, I left home when I was 14 and until I met her yesterday I've never even thought of the name de Ville since".

Vincent was silent thinking over what Yuffie had said. "So her parents were friends of Wutai and committed to try and help it" he said after a few minutes. "I think so Vincent – while I have only a basic knowledge, I can make enquiries when I go home and find out from Chekov and Gorky the full story". Vincent nodded. "Do that please Yuffie – I think it is something that she is entitled to know". Yuffie nodded. "And now I had best leave you to sleep – I will see you next time you come" said Vincent while Yuffie hopped up and gave him a hug around his waist. "I'll be in touch when I have managed to find out more for you" she said "good night Vinnie".

Katherine's alarm clock sounded at 8am on Sunday morning – since she'd had a more restful day yesterday she was not tired when she woke up and she hopped in to the shower and got dressed, contemplating whether to make do with toast for her breakfast or make the effort to go to the dining room. Breakfast on Sundays was from 7.30am to 9.30am to serve both those on weekend shift and those having a lie in – something that all staff appreciated. Since Chrissie never prepared any food whatsoever unless she absolutely had to, Kate decided to wander over to the dining room and read over the newspapers while she caught up with some of the others on her course and waited for Chrissie to appear.

Just as she was about to head over to the door and leave, she heard a sharp knock on the door. Thinking it might actually be Chrissie, Kate opened it and was surprised to find the Empress outside. "My Lady" she said, bowing her head to her. "Pfft I think after last night we can agree it's been decided to dispense with that, unless it's a formal occasion" said Yuffie - "can I come in?". Kate opened the door fully and stepped back waving Yuffie inside. "Of course, it's good to see you, although I thought that you were leaving this morning" she said. "I am on my way to my flight now, however I just wanted to drop some things off to you along the way" said Yuffie, walking over to the table and placing a large, silver case on top of it. Katherine could see the Kisaragi crest engraved on the front of the case, it was obviously very old and very expensive.

"As Vinnie can tell you, I am very nosy and never mind my own business" said Yuffie "hence I was listening to your conversation about the materia yesterday morning. Materia was the passion of my teenage years and I hunted it the world over and we used a lot of it in our AVALANCHE battles. However, since then I have assumed the throne and had my daughter and so it has been several years now since I have actually hunted for it or even really had the opportunity to use it. My collection is huge – whenever you come to Wutai, I will show it to you. Yuffie pressed the clasps on the case and opened it up. "Some of these were my favourites, we used them in some of our most dangerous battles and they brought us aid to defeat those that we needed to. Alas, they spend most of their time now sitting in the dark in this case, only getting some sunlight when I show them to people. They need someone else to look after them and treat them as they deserve" said Yuffie. Kate looked upon the 12 pieces of materia with awe – while she had seen some pieces of materia, they had been fairly low level and she had never actually handled them herself. Yuffie looked up at her. "I would like you to have them on an extended borrow – to use them for your training and have their benefits at your disposal to ensure you complete your G Squad training with style and expertise. Oh, and this armlet and this ribbon – they are yours to keep, I am sure they will help you on some of your missions" Yuffie concluded.

Kate gasped. "Yuffie – I can't accept these!" said Kate, totally dumbfounded. "Yes you can Kate – firstly the armlet and ribbon are for your personal ownership. The materia is just on loan, so you don't have to feel bad about it. And I have several armlets and lots of ribbons locked away in other cases anyway" said Yuffie smiling at her. "Empress – My Lady – oh Leviathan Yuffie, thank you!" said Kate, tears suddenly shining in her eyes. "You have no idea how much this means to me – I have been so worried about what to do get hold of any kind of materia, but to have loaned to me some of yours – I don't know what to say". Yuffie smiled again "I can imagine exactly how you feel, don't you worry – it's about time we had some more females in G Squad! Now I must leave, I'm sorry I don't have time to talk to you about the materia but if you show them to Vincent, he will know them and be able to explain them to you. Hmm how do I say this politely – don't let Cloud tell you what to put in your blade! Just take it with you when you go to Vinnie and he'll help you sort it out" said Yuffie. Then she was out of the door without another word, scurrying off in the direction of the air base where some members of the Wutain Air Fleet were located waiting for the appearance of their Empress.

Katherine sat down at the table and started to look closely at each piece of materia and the armlet and the ribbon – to have received these was such an honour and she was looking forward to showing them to Commander Valentine tomorrow.


	4. Chapter 4  Training gets underway

**Chapter 4** **Training gets under way**

Katherine and her colleagues were sitting in their tutorial group while their group tutor went over some of the day's announcements and answered any questions some of the trainees might have. Half way through the session, a knock sounded at the door and a secretary came in, handing a note to the tutor. After glancing at the envelope, the tutor wandered over to Katherine as he continued talking, handing the note to her. Katherine opened it and saw it was from Commander Valentine – "Ms de Ville – Commander Strife has been delayed until after lunch, so please report to my range at 9am with both your firearm and your blade – Commander Valentine".

While a little disappointed to be missing out on her class with Cloud Strife, Kate was also rather intrigued at the opportunity to see Vincent Valentine wielding a sword or whatever he used, as well as thinking it would be a good opportunity for him to view the materia for her without her having to explain why to Cloud Strife. Since her class would now start at 9am instead of 8.30am she would also have time to fetch her swords and the materia to take with her. The bell rang at 8.30am and Kate returned to her quarters, fetched her weapons and the case that Yuffie had left with her and headed over to Commander Valentine's range.

When she got there, she saw Vincent heading towards her clutching a sword case under his arm. He saw her coming and noticed that she was carrying a large silver case as well as her weapon case. Intrigued, he stopped at the door and opened it, gesturing for Kate to walk ahead of him. Coming in, he shut the door and walked across to his range desk. "Good morning, Commander" said Kate, saluting him. Vincent nodded towards her – "good morning Ms de Ville, my apologies for the change in your schedule this morning however Commander Strife had some calls to make for Commissioner Reeve on his way through this morning. Due to the tight timetable that we operate here, unfortunately it was not possible to swap you around with another afternoon class".

"I understand Commander and it actually does present me with the opportunity to do something that the Empress asked me to do with you today" she replied lifting her silver case up to his desk. "May I show you?" she asked. Vincent nodded, intrigued as to what it could be that Yuffie wanted her to do. As soon as the case was opened, Vincent knew what it contained – he had seen several of the pieces of materia within the case before and knew that they belonged to Yuffie. "Ah – Yuffie has given you some of her materia?" he asked. "Not exactly, Sir – she has given me an armlet and a ribbon" – Kate produced them from a pocket on her leg – "but the materia she has loaned to me during my training, to use on both my firearm and my swords" she replied.

Vincent understood what Yuffie had done – from the brief conversation they had had on Saturday morning, Kate obviously had not had any experience with materia before and had none in her possession. Had her parents not defied Shinra by trying to aid Wutai, especially Yuffie's mother, she would no doubt have quite a supply available to her and also would have been well versed in the use of it. The loan was Yuffie's way of trying to make something up to her, without revealing any of the details of Katherine's parents' disappearance.

"I see – this is an excellent supply of materia, you will find them extremely useful" said Vincent. "I know that I will, however throughout my training, my studies of materia have basically been theory and history based" – Kate blushed a bit, but Vincent did make any comment – "I actually know none of these pieces, the best way to use them or how they should be combined on my weapons" she explained. "Well, since I know a lot of Yuffie's collection first hand, although I will be the first to acknowledge that I do not possess her expertise, I think I will be able to help you sort these items out". Vincent glanced up and for once displayed his sense of humour – "given that Yuffie no doubt told you that you were under no circumstances allowed to let Cloud tell you what to place on your swords, I would not have put it past her to ask Commissioner Reeve to get Cloud to do something on his way here this morning, so that he's safely out of the way while we look at it" smiled Vincent. Kate grinned "far be it for me to disagree with my Commander, Sir" she said tongue in cheek.

Vincent reached behind him and flicked the coffee machine on. "I think this may take us some time to go over it all thoroughly and test some combinations, however once it has been done correctly it will save you time in the long run, so it will be better to spend as much of this morning on it as we need" said Vincent. "If you would bring your weapon case over to this table, I'll carry the materia and start going over it" said Vincent. "Host" said a voice in his head. "Yes, Chaos?" replied Vincent. "This is thoughtful of the little one. I seem to remember having seen something mentioning the de Villes at some stage, it must have been while you were going through the library at Shinra Mansion once. I cannot remember exactly what it was in, I will have to try and recall it" said Chaos. "Would it have been a report?" asked Vincent. "I am assuming so, but I am not sure – it might even be useful for us to go back there this weekend and retrace your steps to see if that helps to jog my memory" said Chaos. "Thank you, yes I think that is probably a good idea Chaos". Chaos lapsed in to silence again and Vincent pulled some notebooks over and prepared to start going through the case.

"We'll start with the ribbon and the armlet. Can you tell me what you know about the ribbon?" asked Vincent as he picked it up and ran it through his fingers. "I believe it aids against status effects, although I'm not entirely sure what they all are" said Kate. "That is correct – you will cover the descriptions of them in your materia classes, which will also cover ribbons and other accessories. In a nutshell, ribbons will protect you against nearly every status effect, although not in the case of every monster you will encounter. However, it works in the case of probably 87% of everything you will ever encounter. While you will not require it to be worn during the first stage of your training, once you commence external assignments you would be recommended to always wear it." Vincent glanced up. "Looking at it, I would say it's identical to the one that Yuffie presented to each member of AVALANCHE and it is highly desirable, so keep it safe". Kate nodded and returned it to her leg pocket when Vincent handed it back across to her.

"Now, your armlet – do you have any idea what it is?" asked Vincent. Kate shook her head. "I have seen several armlets, but never one like this before. It is beautiful". "It is indeed – and the only members of G Squad that have one are Yuffie and Tifa. I would imagine that this one was actually Yuffie's personal one, they are quite rare. It's called a Minerva Band" said Vincent. Kate gasped, making Vincent glance up to look at her. "My mother used to have one, but I never saw it, only heard my father reminding her to pack it" explained Kate. "Since it can hold up to three pieces of materia I imagine Yuffie thought it would be useful. Again, while you are training inside the facility, keep it safe. When you are involved in external assignments, always wear it and make sure you have the materia I will recommend equipped in it". Kate nodded and Vincent put it down next to her weapon case.

"Now, you will of course go over this subject very thoroughly in your materia class and that will involve using pieces to understand their effects and how to maximise their use. Under no circumstances are you to use them outside of the fighting rooms with your G Squad instructors and you will use only the pieces that I recommend at this stage" said Vincent. Kate nodded. "Can you tell me some of the materia classes?" asked Vincent. "Yes Sir – spell, command and summon" responded Kate. "That is correct. For now we will of course only look at the pieces that you have since your class will cover the rest. However the items you have are excellent and come from across all three classes. Since this case was put together by Yuffie, they are of course all grouped in the right class". Vincent looked at Kate again – "it is unlikely that you will ever find anyone as knowledgeable about materia as the Empress of Wutai. While I have the utmost respect for your materia tutor, Nancy Black, I have no doubt that even Ms Black would acknowledge that."

Vincent rang his fingers along the pieces in the case. "The pieces we select today are mainly for your weapons to be used on the ranges, although I will also recommend which pieces you should equip on your Minerva Band when you come to use it. The purpose of making you use the materia is to get you familiar with its benefits in a secure, supervised area. Due to the risk of accidents in a training facility, you will bring the pieces with you and equip them in the range and then remove them from your weapon before you leave, whichever range you are on" said Vincent. Kate nodded again.

"For your Minerva Band, I would recommend that you equip Restore, Heal and Full Cure. That will leave you four items for equipping on your weapons, all of which are suitable and work in combination. Later on you will have the opportunity to equip some of the items from other classes, which means that your items on each weapon may differ and also that you may regularly change them depending on what it is likely that you will encounter during your assignment. You might also swap one of the items from your Minerva Band across, however for now you will be using Ice, Lightning, Fire and Seal on your weapons. Seal is mainly to get you used to keeping them fully equipped as it is unlikely you will encounter a time when you need to use sleep inside – unless of course you are planning on making your Commanders let you off class early for the day" Vincent concluded smiling. Kate grinned at him as she realised what he had been implying.

"Thank you Sir, that has helped hugely – with so many items in the case, I really was not sure where to start with planning out my weapons" explained Kate. Vincent nodded in understanding. "Now, for your information, the pieces we have not covered yet are one command piece and four summons". Kate looked more than a little surprised – "four summons, Sir? Can I ask you what they are?". "Of course. The command item is known as Enemy Skill – basically it is a piece that has the ability to absorb main fighting skills from enemies including monsters. Since this appears to be a level 1 piece, I would think that Yuffie has left it for you to master yourself with the skills that you are able to acquire in your own experiences. The summon items are level 2, the same as your spell items. This will enable you to learn how to master them yourself, while at the same time giving you a strong starting point when you first use them. The summons are Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh and Alexander. You will learn about those from Ms Black, you should for now keep them safe in the case. I am sure she would enjoy the opportunity to look at your collection, by the way" Vincent finished.

"Yes Sir, I will take them along and show her at my first class. May I ask you a question about your materia?" asked Kate. "You may" said Vincent. "Well – basically I was wondering what it is that you use with your weapon by preference" replied Kate. "An interesting question – I can equip four items on each of my weapons and all of them are always equipped, even within the training facility. My Death Penalty carries Restore, Fire, Lightning and Barrier. My Cerberus carries Alexander, Ultima, Mystify and Destruct. When I am outside of the training facility, I also have equipped an Escort Guard armlet equipped with Shield, Full Cure and Resist in addition to my ribbon" finished Vincent. "You have an Alexander?" asked Kate. "I do indeed – a mastered one that we used during some of our battles in AVALANCHE" explained Vincent. "Now, I think you should equip your swords and we'll commence the training session – I am interested in seeing how you perform with your weapons having seen only your firearm and an example of your combat skills so far". Kate equipped the materia on the one of the pair that had slots and moved across to the fighting zone, ready to commence.

At the end of the session, Vincent was pleased to notice that Katherine removed the materia without having to be told, which reminded him of something. "Ah, here – you may as well have one of my spare materia pouches to save you having to carry the case around each day" he explained "and make sure you keep your case locked in the safe in your quarters when you are not using it". Kate took the pouch and looked at it in surprise. "Thank you Sir, I appreciate it – you certainly keep your spare pouches in good condition and I just love the colour of it" she said gratefully. "You're welcome – I seem to always have more than I can use, so I won't be needing it back. I'll see you tomorrow at 11am" said Vincent turning his back to her and carrying his weapons over to his cleaning table.

Kate bade him farewell and went out through the door, closing it behind her much to Vincent's relief. His cheeks had gained a pale pink hue at her words and he felt a little embarrassed. The pouch was not one of his spare ones at all, but one that he had caught sight of in the materia shop in town the day before and been drawn to due to its colour that reminded him of the beautiful, sparkling sapphire green of her eyes. The outside of the case was made of a special strengthened velvet, backed with a rare leather and lined with a thick, soft sapphire green velvet inside and drawn together by a leather cord entwined with gold thread. It had cost Vincent 460 gil and had been worth every gil as far as he was concerned. Usually he would spend no more than 120 gil on a materia pouch, if he even bothered to get a new one. He would have liked to have been able to have her initials applied to it in gold leaf but fortunately he realised in time that that would make it plain it was not one of his spare pouches and he doubted that Katherine would have felt it appropriate to accept it from him. He could have got around the obstacle by asking Yuffie to send it to her, but part of him did not want Yuffie to know about it, plus it would have meant that Katherine would not have associated him with the gift.

While he was in the materia shop looking at it, Chaos had caught on to what he was doing and Vincent was surprised that he had been looking at it too. He had even asked Vincent to turn some of the inside material out in the light so he could see it clearly and after he'd looked at it, had commended Vincent on his appropriate choice. Hellmasker and Death Gigas and even Galian had agreed with him. It occurred to Vincent that while they had enjoyed teasing him at the Karoke night, none of them had directed a crude comment towards Katherine since the morning he had first met her at the opening ceremony, or due to attachment, at her sister Chrissie. This was in stark contrast to the comments Vincent had been subjected to the morning he made the mistake of crossing through one of the combat training areas while a yoga session was in place for some of the female trainees. He had not before realised how explicit some of the exercises could be and seeing 20 shapely women dressed in tight fitting exercise clothes dropped in to a position he would certainly have preferred not to have seen was rather a shock. The comments that Chaos and the other demons had come out with made him almost run out of the training area. While it had not in any way made him feel the least bit aroused – only Katherine had that effect on him – the thoughts of the demons were pure embarrassment and Vincent was eternally grateful that at least he was the only one that could hear what they were saying.

"I wonder what her limit break is" said Chaos suddenly. "Limit break? I doubt very much if she has one" replied Vincent. While he was used to the limit breaks used by all members of AVALANCHE and had encountered and even fought others that had them, the majority of warriors he had encountered did not have one and he doubted that many of them even knew what they were. Even Troy, Darren and Kristian did not have one and as far as he was aware, they had no ability to acquire one. "She has three" responded Chaos.

Vincent was taken aback. "How on earth do you know that, Chaos?" he asked. "I can tell from her aura – it is very strong. I can even tell that one of them is some form of – hmm entity I suppose is the best way to describe it" said Chaos. "An entity? As in a demon?" asked Vincent. "No – it's more likely some form of spirit or soul, I would imagine" said Chaos.

Vincent frowned – something like that should by rights have been declared on her application form, since it did potentially present both a hazard to fellow trainees and a benefit against enemies. Chaos knew what he was thinking and agreed. "However, Host, it is always possible that she is in fact in ignorance of her abilities. Bear in mind that it has only been myself, as far as you are aware, that has picked up on it. Even you were unable to detect it" said Chaos. "How would she be unaware of it?" asked Vincent. "I'm not entirely sure, Host, but I would suppose it's something to do with the absence of her parents. I think it highly unlikely that they would have been unaware of her abilities, but no doubt were waiting for her to reach an appropriate age before explaining it to her and training her how to use them. Since they disappeared when she was 11, and most likely no one else knew of them, I would think it has continued to lie dormant within her" concluded Chaos.

Vincent was silent, his mind rolling over a number of possibilities. "Do you think it is possible that they could emerge of their own volition if her state reaches some level of extreme?" he asked Chaos. It was Chaos's turn to silently ponder the matter. "Given that your own limit breaks – ie us – can emerge under our own steam if your situation calls for it, I would imagine that not only is it possible, it is likely. And given that she is training to join a squad that will engage in activities that will most certainly result in her reaching extreme levels at times, it is only a question of time before at least one of them emerges for the first time" stated Chaos.

Vincent was silent again as he thought the matter over, seeking for some options. One possibility was to wait until she had passed stage 1 of her training and joined G Squad for the practical phase of stage 2 of her training, with them keeping her under supervision and waiting for it to occur. The disadvantage to that was that if she encountered a situation before that, her limit breaks could emerge without warning. If Chaos was right and she was completely unaware of her abilities, it was likely that she would have no means of controlling them, at least during their first appearance. On the other hand, attempting to explain to her and train her to control them, when no one but Chaos seemed to have even any idea what they might be, seemed to be also fraught with danger.

"My suggestion would be to think on it for a few days before going to Reeve with some options" said Chaos. "Is that because you think it is in the best interests of the WRO, or in the best interests of Katherine?" asked Vincent. Chaos thought for a moment. "You are right, Host. You must be aware that I know of your attraction and feelings towards her. What you are not aware of is that I and my fellow demons entirely agree with you on your selection and while we think it's been long overdue since that bitch left your life, we perceive Katherine to be your potential life mate. Therefore any decisions that could possibly be to her disadvantage, I would naturally oppose". Vincent decided to overlook Chaos's comment on Lucretia. "It would appear that we are at one in relation to Katherine and her personal meaning to us, then" said Vincent. "Indeed we are Host" responded Chaos "unfortunately however, that does not really assist you in coming up with options for dealing with her limit breaks. I would suggest Director Sturge is the appropriate person for you to be having the discussion with" concluded Chaos. Vincent nodded. "Very well, I will head back up to headquarters and make him aware of the situation. It may well be that he has encountered something similar before and has some ideas on what we should do" finished Vincent.

He then finished cleaning his sword and Cerberus and locking his door behind him, headed back up to G Squad headquarters. Arriving back in the main office, he looked over to the Director's office and saw his door was open and the Director was present, eating a sandwich as he read over a report. Vincent walked across and knocked on the door. Sturge looked up – "come in, Vincent and take a seat" he said, turning around and pouring Vincent a coffee from the machine behind him. "How is Ms de Ville's training coming along so far?" he asked. "Her firearms, combat and weapons training is excellent and I understand that she is achieving high results in all of her other subjects too, although of course we have only commenced the beginning of the full training week" said Vincent and took his coffee, cradling it in his hands and looking down at it. "Something is on your mind, Vincent?" asked Sturge. Vincent was silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts. Sturge knew Vincent well and calmly waited for him to be ready to answer.

"I have received some unexpected information about Ms de Ville this morning – from Chaos" said Vincent and raised his face to look at Sturge. "From Chaos?" – whatever Sturge might have been anticipating it was not that. "Yes Sir. It would appear that Ms de Ville emits a strong aura that Chaos is able to pick up on. From that aura, Chaos has been able to detect three limit breaks within her. While Chaos is not sure what the limit breaks are, he is aware that one of them is some kind of entity, may be a soul or a spirit. A grim expression appeared on Sturge's face. "Am I right in recalling that no mention of any limit break, at whatever phase it might be, was made on Ms de Ville's application form?" asked Sturge. The tone in his voice was clear – he was immediately suspicious of her intentions. Having a potential G Squad member with an ability to harm squad members or senior staff such as Reeve, or even Rufus, through the use of powerful limit breaks was a serious a matter.

Suddenly, Vincent felt an eruption of anger from Chaos and felt him moving his way up. Vincent immediately attempted to control him, but in front of Sturge, Vincent's eyes toned to black and yellow and his voice changed. "She is not a traitor" rang out Chaos's voice clearly, his intense dislike of Sturge's words evident – "she is unaware of her abilities, her parents not having been here to inform her or train her. She will not suffer the consequences of your suspicion and lack of knowledge". Vincent's eyes became red again, the struggle against Chaos in his face clear to Sturge as he waited for Vincent to gain control again. Eventually Chaos submitted to his will, after having made Vincent promise to speak on Katherine's behalf.

"I apologise Sir. Chaos and I have already been discussing the possibilities surrounding Ms de Ville's situation and on the whole I tend to agree with Chaos. I understand that Ms de Ville's parents were warriors and it seems likely that they would have been fully aware of her abilities from a young age – it is in fact likely that they were inherited from her parents either directly or via a combination of their DNA. It is also likely that they made the decision to wait for her to reach an appropriate age before informing her of her abilities and training her in how to use them. Unfortunately Ms de Ville's parents disappeared when she was 11, believed to be dead. It would seem that no one else who was able to talk to her about them was aware of her abilities, hence she has grown up not knowing of them".

"Chaos and I are also both of the opinion that her abilities will be affected when her state reaches some sort of extreme, which could happen at any time considering she is now an Elite Warrior in training and a G Squad trainee. She will most certainly encounter some situations that will force her in to that extreme, at which time her abilities, currently lying dormant within her, will emerge and will most likely be out of her control, since she has no experience or even knowledge of them. I believe it is in fact fortunate that this has not happened before she joined the WRO. Even Chaos has so far been unable to detect the details of them from her aura, apart from the fact that they do exist and that one of them seems to be some form of entity, most likely a spirit or a soul, but certainly not a demon – Chaos would have of course been able to detect and communicate with any demon" concluded Vincent.

"My apologies Chaos – I was of course making the wrong assumptions, as you correctly pointed out" said Sturge. Vincent felt Chaos begin to calm down a bit more inside him. "My apologies to you, also Vincent – I should have been aware that you and Chaos would have discussed this already and have some view on the situation. So the bottom line is – how to tell her and then to help her discover her abilities and gain control over them" summarised Sturge. "Indeed Sir – and I am not entirely sure how that should be done, never having experienced anyone before with no awareness or knowledge of their limit breaks" replied Vincent. Sturge looked at him in some surprise. "But you have, Vincent, you have" he said. "I have? Who?" he asked. "Yourself" responded Sturge, referring to when Vincent had regained consciousness after one of the experiments on him only to find himself in the form of the Galian Beast.

Vincent was silent – even Chaos seemed to have forgotten that situation, mainly because he was not inserted in to Vincent until after that event and had merely seen Vincent's memories and not his own. "You are right again, Sir – the only difference being between our situations is that Ms de Ville at least has someone who is able to explain a limit break to her, give her some examples and assist her in reaching an extreme so that she can release them" responded Vincent. Sturge nodded at him. "Exactly – whilst I am able to help explain to her what a limit break is and how it can be affected by a state of extreme, since I do not channel one myself I have no real way of explaining to her what she needs to do, how she will feel, and how she will familiarise herself with her abilities. I do however also suggest that Ms Black should be present when we advise her of her situation and outline how you will be helping her. Partly because I believe it is important that another female should be present in this situation and partly because, believe it or not, Ms Black does have a limit break, although not in the same league as yours. Ms Black is able to produce a barrier against some materia pieces that she uses when she goes harvesting new ones" Sturge explained. Vincent was surprised – while it sounded fairly low level and basic, it was nevertheless a limit break and one that was entirely suitable to Ms Black's activities.

"I think Vincent that you may need to clear the rest of your week, since you don't know how long this will take and I think it has to be considered a priority – the last thing we want is for some drunk to approach Ms de Ville in the training bar this evening and for her to give him more than the usual kind of rejection" Sturge said humorously. "I'll get hold of Ms Black now and ask her to make her afternoon clear due to an emergency and get her to come down at 2pm in order for us to discuss how to approach the subject and also to put together a training program for it. One in which I imagine that Chaos is going to have a starring role" Sturge once again showed his sense of humour.


	5. Chp 5 Coming to terms with a limit break

Good Friday to all those celebrating Easter. To those that do not celebrate Easter, happy holiday**.**

Thanks to Shrigo, alesan4ever and MysticPhoenix1992 – your reviews were very encouraging and I have added the next chapter (I have written 12 chapters so far to keep the story in my mind, but the last 3 are ones I am reviewing to make sure I am staying on the right story line). Since its holidays this weekend, there will be another one on Saturday night I think!

Hope everyone else enjoys them (and read MysticPhoenix1992 as she is a wonderful writer).

**Chapter 5 - Coming to terms with a limit break**

Katherine was just coming to the end of her afternoon's first class when the instructor called her over as she headed to the door. "Ms de Ville, would you report to Director Sturge's office now, please. If you go to the G Squad reception door, someone will come and fetch you and take you up". "Yes Ma'am, thank you" Katherine replied, knowing there was no point in asking the instructor if she knew why as even if she did, she would say nothing. Kate was very apprehensive – she had no idea why the Director might have asked to see her. She hoped that whatever the reason was, it was a good one. One thing she had worked out already, if he wanted her longer then the length of her next class, the following instructor would be aware of why she had not arrived for class. She wasn't sure whether this thought encouraged or made her more nervous.

She headed out of the door towards the G Squad facility, not sure of what to expect when she arrived since she'd never been given an instruction to go there before. The outside of the building had the same warm, friendly look as the rest of the buildings, but Kate was not stupid and knew it would be completely different when she got there. Walking through the first archway, Kate saw the first change in security. Two uniformed officers were waiting for her, with another patrol keeping a watchful eye on her. "Good afternoon Ms de Ville, follow us please" one of them said. Kate nodded and fell in to step between them. She was quite a tall woman, but they both towered above her, their shoulders broad alongside of her. As they passed through the second archway they approached a sliding glass door, leading in to a reception area.

"Would you please check your weapons in now and empty your pockets for inspection" the security officer said. Walking up to the counter, Kate made sure her safety catch was firmly in place and handed her gun, hand grip first, in to the tray that the guard had placed on the counter in front of her. It disappeared from view as the guard pressed a catch down on the counter. Next she emptied her pockets – her items mainly consisted of keys, coins, pens and a notebook, having left her bag in her locker when she exited the building. She stood while the security guard passed a security paddle over her carefully, looking for indications of hidden items. Then the items were also placed in to a tray and disappeared from view. She raised her brows at the security guard. "You will be given replacement writing tools when you are inside, Ma'am" he said and Kate nodded.

Just then she caught sight of another security guard heading in, carrying the bag that she had locked in her locker 10 minutes earlier. The security guard must have seen the expression of surprise on her face. "Its standard security for visitor's to the building Ma'am – we would have told you to bring it with you if we had remembered this is your first visit, my apologies for the oversight" he stated calmly. Somehow Kate realised that this was not really true, the bag had been collected when it was noticed that she had chosen not to bring it with her – she hoped that it didn't imply some bad reason on her part. The security guard then asked her to empty everything from her bag in to another tray and once again sent it through followed by her empty bag.

"Thank you Ma'am, would you follow me again please" he said, turning towards another frosted glass door through which Kate could not see. As she stepped through, she was asked to step on to some kind of machine. As it was operated, Kate realised it was some kind of xray like machine, only not exactly an xray machine. Or at least she hoped it was not, since she had not been provided with any protective gear. It appeared it was used to examine her shoes and clothing again. She hoped that there would be no physical examination – somehow she was not keen on the idea of having to have her private parts explored by this security guard checking for potential weapons or explosives. A bell rang on the machine. "Thank you Ma'am for your cooperation, I will take you through to main reception now" he finally told her.

As they got through the door, the security guards saluted her and then turned and exited the reception area – no doubt looking for their next prey, thought Kate childishly. She approached the reception counter and was greeted by a smartly dressed but very motherly woman with a charming smile. "Ah you must be Katherine – how did you enjoy the vultures?" she asked. Katherine grinned – "was I that obvious?" she asked. "No more than I was on my first visit, I assure you" smiled the receptionist whose name tag read 'Sue'. "I have a form for you to fill in and then a confidentiality agreement for you to sign, then I can give you a tag and someone will be here to take you upstairs" said Sue.

Kate filled in the form, which only asked for some of her basic id information and then read over the agreement before signing it. "Thank you my dear, here is your tag. You will need to wear it on your left hand side in order for it to be read accurately by the security scanners on the door. You can use the velcro clasp on that uniform, you won't want to be sticking a pin through that leather I would imagine" stated Sue, obviously a previous victim of the pin v leather nightmare. "Thank you very much Sue" said Kate. "My pleasure my dear – ah and here is Commander Valentine himself to escort you upstairs" finished Sue.

Kate turned towards the entry gates and saw Vincent approaching from the other side. He nodded at her. "If you just walk forward, the scanner will read your tag and open the gates for you" said Vincent. Kate did as she was asked and the gates opened, letting her walk through to Vincent. "Thank you, Commander" she said.

Katherine fell in step alongside Vincent, who could tell that she was somewhat nervous about her unexpected visit to G Squad. "I hope you found the clearance process non-threatening" he said to her as they walked along. "It was fine Sir, and Sue was very welcoming" she replied. "Ah, yes Sue – I once arrived having forgotten my security tag and since I was Vincent Valentine decided that I could proceed through anyway. Sue had me down on the ground within 4 seconds, proceeded to stand over me and give me a lecture on my egotistical attitude and requested me in future not to give her another reason to have to risk chipping one of her lovely nails" smiled Vincent. Katherine could not help laughing – she realised that Vincent was probably trying to relax her about her visit and appreciated his efforts. She was aware again of how helpful and thoughtful the Commander was – far more so than any other trainer she had encountered since she arrived at the WRO, in fact. Given who he was and what he was capable of, Katherine had been rather surprised to find that he was such a considerate man. She quite liked him.

They approached another door and Vincent stood aside for her security tag to be read again before the door opened and he led her on to the next area. Katherine was beginning to see that in many respects the security clearance was not really required – any one fool enough to attempt to enter the building by force would find themselves against some of the most extreme security environments she had ever encountered. Not to mention that should someone actually manage to get through, they would be met head on by Vincent Valentine and the other members of G Squad within a few seconds.

Vincent turned a corner and stepped in front of Katherine. "Your security tag actually won't operate this door" he said walking through it once he had opened it on his own tag and then stepping back for her to come forward. "Welcome to G Squad" he said. Katherine looked around – she had walked forward in to a large office containing several desks and a large relaxation area comprising a few extremely comfortable looking couches and armchairs, with a few large drink making machines and baskets of fresh fruit and snacks along the top of a stylish looking counter. From the smell in the air, Katherine realised that G Squad were not subjected to the same type of coffee the trainees were in the dining area.

"If you would take a seat here for a moment, I will let the Director know that you have arrived" said Vincent, pointing towards the relaxation area as he headed over to one of the doors in the walls of the office. Katherine sat down and looked around. The desks were all obviously expensive and very coordinated items of furniture and she had no doubt that the computers on the top were far more advanced than anything people could buy from any supplier outside of the WRO. The walls were hung with tasteful artworks. Giving a direct contrast to this, there was a bin along the end of the wall with a small target stuck above it – balls of paper were spilling over the top of the bin and Katherine smiled to herself as she realised that some of the squad members had obviously been using it for target practice today, no doubt when they were stuck on the phone or drinking coffee.

The doors opened again and as she looked up, Lieutenants Hestle, Fenwitch and Langford came in laughing together. Being handsome young men with an eye for a beautiful young woman, they naturally noticed her as soon as they came in, and headed across to her immediately. "Ms de Ville, what a pleasant surprise" said Darren smiling at her. "Sorry guys, but she's obviously here to see me" said Troy, batting his eyelids at her in an obvious and flirtatious manner. "Ah you mean she's here representing the rest of the female trainees with a request for you to stop using so much hair gel on Saturday nights" smirked Kristian. Troy slapped Kristian around the back of the head and retorted "jealously will get you nowhere, you will just have to come to terms with the fact that life is not always kind where hair is concerned. You could of course consider a wig". "My thanks my colleagues, my score has just automatically risen in Ms de Ville's eyes – I will of course let you have some extra biscuits to show my thanks" swiped Darren. Katherine laughed "gentlemen, I am impressed at your success in your alternative careers as comedians – but you might be advised not to give up the day jobs". Troy clasped his hands to his chest "gentlemen, she wants to see us under the death throes of some vicious beast" he sighed sadly. "You mean she likes me in my leather" quipped Kristian. Katherine could not stop laughing – the young men really were funny and at the same time, were not attempting to make her feel uncomfortable with inappropriate chat up lines or salacious looks at her.

"I'm sure the Lieutenants have some work that they should be doing rather than distracting themselves by making small talk with the Director's visitor" said a cold voice behind them. Vincent had approached without them hearing. The guys scuttled back to their desks, casting twinkling looks in Vincent's direction – he could have kicked himself. Why did he have to make it so obvious to them that he had not appreciated them making Katherine laugh – he knew he was going to have to put up with them teasing him about her as soon as she left the office later.

Katherine however was not so aware of the relationships between the G Squad members and assumed that the Lieutenants were in trouble and that she herself had probably not appeared in a good light. "My apologies, Commander" she said as she stood up to attention again. The Lieutenants and Vincent all felt rather uncomfortable now, since Katherine obviously thought that she had behaved inappropriately in some way and that Vincent was not overly impressed with her. Vincent shook his head and gave her a brief smile "there is nothing to apologise for, Ms de Ville" he said "the Director is now available to see you". Turning around to head back to the Director's office he shot the guys a glare, and led Katherine across.

Arriving at the Director's office, he knocked on the open door and announced "Ms de Ville, Director". Director Sturge stood up and walked over to Katherine. "Ms de Ville, welcome to G Squad, it is a pleasure to finally meet you at last after having heard so much about you from your G Squad trainers" he said welcomingly. "Thank you, Director" Kate replied. "Please take a seat over here" he said, leading the way across to a more relaxed area at the side of his office. Katherine was impressed at how large his office actually was, you could probably fit at least three of the training facility offices in it. She noticed to her surprise that Ms Black and Commander Strife and Captain Fair were also present – since they all of them had classes of some description on Monday afternoons, Katherine became aware that whatever the Director wanted to discuss with her was considered to be extremely important. Her mouth felt dry and as she sat down, she unconsciously screwed her hands in to fists, the nails almost cutting in to her skin in nerves. Vincent of course noticed this – he always noticed everything about her and once more he kicked himself for having made her a little nervous before she entered the office.

"Might I suggest some coffee would be welcome, Director" said Vincent. Sturge had also noticed Katherine's nervousness and guessed that Vincent was after something for her to focus her hands on, rather than sit there with stiff shoulders and finger nails cutting in to her hands. "Indeed a good idea Vincent" – he pressed the intercom on his desk "Rebecca, could you please bring in coffee for 6 please" he asked. "Yes Sir" his secretary replied and Katherine was surprised when the door opened only a couple of minutes later and the secretary entered carrying a tray of drinks. Katherine supposed she had set them all up earlier on in case they were asked for.

After the drinks had been handed out and the secretary had left the office, Sturge commenced the meeting. "Ms de Ville, I realise that you are wondering why you have been asked to come here this afternoon. Let me assure you that we are extremely satisfied with your training and there is no improvement related matter that we need to discuss with you" he started. Katherine at least felt a little happier about her situation although she was still puzzled as to why she might have been asked to attend.

"Ms de Ville, tell me what do you understand about limit breaks?" asked Sturge. The look of surprise on her face was obvious. "Limit breaks? I have of course heard stories that included mention of them – but excuse me Sir, limit breaks are not real, are they?" she responded. "Told you so" said Chaos smugly. "While they are not common, they are indeed real, Ms de Ville. Although I myself do not channel one, everyone else in this room does – Ms Black has one, Commander Strife and Captain Fair have three and Commander Valentine has four" Sturge replied. "I see – my apologies Director, I have never encountered a limit break and just assumed that they were something fictitious that were sometimes mentioned – one of those urban legends in fact" Katherine explained. "Every member of AVALANCHE has at least three limit breaks Ms de Ville and we encountered enemies with them too" injected Vincent. Katherine nodded at him.

"No doubt you are wondering why I am asking you about them" said Sturge. He paused looking for the right words to use. "One of Vincent's limit breaks you may have heard of Ms de Ville – Chaos, who fought and destroyed Omega. Chaos is not a usual limit break – he is in fact a separate entity that exists inside Vincent, emerging at times when Vincent requires his assistance. In addition, he is also able to communicate with Vincent when he wants to". Katherine looked stunned and said nothing. "Chaos had a conversation with Vincent this morning after your class with him. I think it may be better if I allow Vincent to explain directly" said Sturge, looking at Vincent. Vincent nodded.

"After you left the range this morning, Chaos wondered what your limit breaks were. I told him that I doubted whether you had one and he replied that you have three". He heard Katherine gasp, but continued. "I asked him how he was aware of them and he told me that he can pick up on the very strong aura surrounding you and from that detect three limit breaks. It appears as far as we can tell that Chaos is in fact the only one that has been able to detect them. Even I was completely unaware of them. However, Chaos is unable to detect the detail of the breaks, other than that he knows that none of them is a demon, since if one was he would be able to both detect it and communicate with it." "Hmm mentioning the word demon at this stage may not have been the best thing to do, Host" chimed in Chaos. Vincent could tell what he meant from the look on Katherine's face, but continued on.

"Since you had not disclosed any limit breaks on your application form, I wondered why. Chaos told me that he thought you were unaware of your breaks and that they are currently lying dormant. We think that it is likely that you have had these abilities within you since your birth however your parents decided to wait until you were of an appropriate age before they informed you of them and trained you in how to use them. Due to their unfortunate disappearance they were obviously unable to carry out their plan. It would also seem that they were the only ones aware of them, since no one else has talked to you about them since that time. As Ms Black pointed out, from that age you were subject to overwhelming emotional burdens through the loss of your parents and the transfer to your foster family and getting to know them and settle in to your new life. You also went through your teenage years and other life experiences that could have created the extreme situation that would have unleashed your breaks, however Ms Black is of the view that you have strong personal control over your emotions and the situations to which you have may been exposed, which is why they are still lying dormant. However, given that you are now involved in training as both an Elite warrior and a potential member of G Squad, you will encounter an extreme situation probably in the near future. This will result in the emergence of at least one of your breaks, of which you will have no knowledge and at least on its first emergence, no ability to control".

Katherine had now gone beyond gasping and was beginning to approach a bout of hyperventilation. Suddenly Vincent heard Death Vigas. "Vincent, tell her to look at you, to match her breathing to yours and look in your eyes – and give me some control". Vincent complied and felt Death Vigas begin to come forward – he was also aware in the background that Chaos and the other demons were becoming a little anxious for Katherine's situation. "Katherine, look at me in my eyes. Make yourself aware of my breathing and breathe in time with me" said Vincent. Katherine tried to do as he asked, but was obviously struggling. Vincent began to wonder whether in fact they were about to witness her first limit break emergence – which could possibly be disastrous, since her limit break would respond to her extreme emotions and might view them as her attackers.

The others in the room remained silent and made no movements that might distract Katherine. It was obvious from Vincent's face that one of his demons was assisting him, although they could not tell who it was – with his knowledge of Vincent's demons, Cloud suspected that it was most likely Death Vigas. He at least hoped it was not Hellmasker. As Katherine locked on to Vincent's eyes, she began to feel a sense of calm flowing out to her, allowing her to slow her breathing down a little and begin to concentrate on Vincent's breathing. Minutes ticked by as Vincent continued to hold her eyes with his own and allowing Death Vigas to do whatever it was he was doing – Vincent could see that it was at least improving Katherine's situation so he decided to allow him to continue as long as necessary.

After another five minutes, Katherine's breathing was in time with Vincent's, her chest rising and falling gently along with his. Her eyes were still locked on his, but her sense of calm was now obvious to everyone in the room. "I will give her two more minutes Vincent and then you can take over again" advised Death Vigas. Two minutes passed, Death Vigas gave her a final once over and then began to drop back down again, handing all control back to Vincent. Katherine blinked, her eyes no longer locked on his, but obviously still feeling calmer. "Katherine my dear" said Ms Black "your limit breaks will never hurt you, they are there to protect you. They will not hurt your friends or those that you are fighting alongside. They will not even hurt your enemies unless your situation becomes so extreme that you are about to suffer severe hurt. Then whichever one it is that you need will come forward and help you, only for as long as you need its help. As soon as it is over, it will flow back down again inside of you and will cause no more harm even to your enemies. It is your protection that it will focus on".

Katherine looked at Ms Black – "I am sorry Ms Black, this was just so overwhelming – learning that Vincent not only has a demon inside him but that his demon picked up on my own limit breaks and was able to discuss them with Vincent – and then learning that something is going to erupt from within me – it's too much, I can't cope with this". Only Vincent seemed to notice that she was referring to him as Vincent while apparently still referring to the other's by their titles. "I know it was overwhelming for you, but you took control again Katherine. You will always be able to take control. You need have no fear of your limit breaks, my dear" responded Ms Black. Katherine looked at Vincent. "Is that true?' she asked. "Yes it's quite true, Ms de Ville. When you were looking in my eyes just now, it was one of my limit breaks that was there, helping me to calm you down because you needed it. Your own limit breaks will provide you with even more assistance – because they are yours, they exist only for your protection in extreme situations" responded Vincent.

"So – so what happens now. You said that I would not have the ability to control them when they first come out" – her eyes were once again on Vincent's face and he realised that he probably did not explain things as well as he should have done. "I'm sorry Ms de Ville I should have phrased that better. I meant that if they emerged without your knowledge, because you would not know what they were or what they could do, you would not realise your ability to control them or how to do it. Because we have found out about them, we are able to help you to learn about them and how to use them in the best way. We have our own limit breaks Ms de Ville and just like you, we had to get to know them and understand how they worked and how to get them to do what we wanted them to do".

Katherine looked a bit happier with this response but then asked something else "so what do I have inside of me, then? If you have demons, what would I have?". "Everyone has different limit breaks Ms de Ville, as I said earlier on. I have four demons inside of me – Cloud and Zack have none, they have magic skills that enable them to fight at extremely high critical levels. Ms Black has a skill that enables her to erect a shield against materia when she is out harvesting it. What we will do is work with you to help you to reach an extreme level in a safe situation that will allow you to experience your limit breaks and see what they do. Once you know what they do, then you will be able to control them and know what it is that you need to do with them" concluded Vincent.

Katherine was silent for a moment, obviously gathering her thoughts. "But Vincent, you said that Chaos had told you that I had an entity inside of me. If that is not a demon, what is it?" she asked. "An entity is simply a term that Chaos used to try and describe it to me, Katherine. Chaos is a demon, a very ancient and mighty demon who has his own demonic language – in fact numbers of them from what I understand. When he communicates with me, he speaks in our language. However some of the things that exist, although they may be easily described in his own languages, within our language there is no equivalent term – Chaos therefore has to use an expression that will enable me to try and comprehend what it is he is trying to convey to me. He also used the term spirit or soul – he knows that you have an ability to project something from within you, but exactly what it is we will not know until you have managed to channel it. What we can tell you however, is that it is not evil and will not harm you" Vincent finished.

Cloud spoke for the first time. "Ms de Ville, I think that if Chaos only sees one as an entity, then the other two are most likely to be spells that you will be able to cast to assist you in battle, either spells direct from your body as Yuffie and Tifa can do, or else spells that assist your weapons such as Zak and I use. However, we use them with special weapons that were granted to us – as far as I can see your weapons, while good quality are simply ordinary weapons that could be bought in weapons stores. Therefore I think it most likely that two of your abilities will be spells that you will cast yourself when required". Zak nodded. "I would agree with that Ms de Ville".

Katherine looked at the Director. "So what happens now Sir?". Sturge felt a feeling of relief at her question – it indicated to him that although she was still coming to terms with the concept of her limit breaks, she was now able to look ahead and think about what else had to happen. "First of all, the person that will be appointed to work closely with you on your limit breaks is Commander Valentine. His schedule for the rest of the week has already been cleared and he will spend however much time is necessary to assist you. Next week will be cleared as well, if that should be necessary. Before you start on your training with him, we will go over a proposal with you so that you can understand what we are hoping to achieve in order for you to be able to channel your limit breaks and learn about them. We won't be doing anything without your knowledge or your acceptance." Katherine looked at him gratefully and nodded – partly because her involvement would be allowed, but also partly because it would be Vincent working with her. She realised that she had already grown to trust him more than anyone else in the WRO and the task ahead seemed to be not quite so frightening knowing that he would be with her.

"There is another matter that we would like to discuss with you too. As you are aware, we have already mentioned that since you are involved in both the Elite warrior and G Squad trainee programs there is no doubt that you will encounter severe situations that will trigger the release of your limit breaks. While your work with Commander Valentine for the rest of the week will ensure that you will at least know what your limit breaks are, we think that it would be more in your favour if any situations that you encounter occur only within G Squad, at least for the time being. From my discussions with your trainers it is clear that in fact while you are still in the first phase of your training, you already meet the majority of the requirements for the full 12 months of the Elite program and have already complied with the outcomes we would be hoping to achieve at the end of the first stage of your G Squad training".

"As Commander Strife summed it up, you are able to do everything required of you at this stage, but until you are able to move to stage 2 and gain the opportunities to use what you currently know in direct, external situations against monsters and enemies, you are unable to progress your knowledge and skill any further. Since stage 1 simply does not offer you the window of opportunity to do so. What we are therefore proposing is that you are removed from the Elite training program and stage 1 of the G Squad program and instead admitted immediately to Stage 2. In addition one day a week would be set aside for some training aspects that you do still need to complete ie materia, first aid and sign language and lip reading. You would then continue along the G Squad training program and hopefully pass it at the end and be appointed to G Squad. If for some reason you failed the final program, you would still be appointed as an Elite warrior to the WRO, since you have in fact already acquired everything that course would ask of you, especially with what you will learn in G Squad stage 2."

It took Katherine a minute or so to digest all of this information. "So what you are saying Sir, is that I would still have the opportunity to continue with my training for G Squad, even though I failed to state my limit breaks on my application form as I was required to do?". Sturge smiled. "Well, since you in fact had no knowledge of them – a fact that Chaos was extremely clear in pointing out to me – we could hardly have expected you to declare them, so yes. If you agree to our proposal, the paper work that appoints you to stage 2 immediately will be drawn up by my secretary now and presented to you for your review and signature later this afternoon".

"Yes Sir I would love to accept your proposal, Sir" spluttered Katherine. "I am pleased to hear that Ms de Ville, welcome to stage 2 then. You will of course now be based in G Squad headquarters" smiled Sturge and holding out his hand. Katherine shook his hand, then the others stepped forward to offer theirs as well, Ms Black leaning forward to whisper in her ear "congratulations my dear, you coped with this meeting so very well, I am proud of you". Ms Black, Zak and Cloud then left Sturge's office and headed off to their next commitments. Katherine was surprised to notice that the clock on the wall read 4pm she had been in the Director's office for nearly two hours.

Sturge also glanced at the clock. "Vincent, I must now go and catch up with the Commissioner for the next couple of hours. I will ask Rebecca to bring the paperwork through and leave it on your desk when it is ready. I would suggest that Katherine is in need of a break from this intense concentration for a bit and we probably won't be able to work on her limit break training outline until tomorrow morning. Therefore I suggest that perhaps you go over your own limit breaks with her and talk to her generally about G Squad once the paperwork is ready and until then she can have some free time, if you think that is appropriate. I will see you tomorrow at 9am, Katherine" concluded Sturge. "Thank you Sir" said Katherine standing as he walked out of his office.

Vincent turned to her and smiled. "You did well during that meeting, Katherine. That must have been very hard for you to come to terms with, having had no knowledge of your abilities and having had them presented to you like this" he said. "It was hard at first Sir, but thank you for your assistance. I have a feeling that if you had not been able to calm me down, we might be standing amongst the ruins of the Director's office by now" Kate responded lightly. "If you would like to go back to your quarters for now, I will contact you when the paperwork has arrived to go over it with you, which knowing Rebecca will be no longer than an hour" said Vincent. "I will show you down to the ground floor so you can recover your property and then be in touch with you later". Vincent then escorted her out of the office and down to the ground floor.


	6. Chp 6  Hello to Chaos

**6. Hello to Chaos**

Vincent was seated at the desk in his office as a knock sounded. "Come in" he stated. The door opened and Katherine stepped in, closing the door behind her. "Welcome back Ms de Ville, please sit down" said Vincent nodding towards a chair opposite him and reaching across for her personal records folder. "I assume you found your return trip a little more enjoyable than your previous one" he said. Katherine smiled and nodded – the security guards had not put her through the same inspections this time, merely saluting her and escorting her straight through to Sue, who had her security tag ready and waiting for her.

Inside the folder resting on the top of the filed documents was a thick sheath of papers. Vincent pulled them out and passed them across to her. "These are your appointment papers, as you can see there are a few that you need to go over. If you would like to read them through first, I will then go over them with you from my copy" said Vincent. Katherine took the papers and settled back in her chair to read them. Vincent smiled to himself inside – she looked so attractive sitting there and his advanced sense of smell could catch the scent of her body – a freesia scented perfume that she used slightly on herself. The scent was intoxicating to Vincent and in his mind was perfect for her.

Vincent had realised from his earlier conversation with Chaos that he was not the only one impressed with Katherine. No doubt fully aware of Vincent's attraction to her since the opening ceremony, Chaos had started to take an interest in Katherine and whenever he mentioned her, it was with politeness. This was in direct contrast to some of the crude sexual comments Chaos would regularly make about some of the other women trainees. Vincent wondered what Chaos's response would be should he hear one of the male trainees make a similar comment about Katherine, or by attachment, her sister Chrissie. He doubted that Chaos would be in the slightest bit amused.

After 10 minutes Katherine looked up. He was not surprised he had noticed that she was able to read documents fast with a high level of comprehension at the same time. "I've done an initial read through Sir, I have a general understanding of it but there are a few clauses I'm not too sure about" she said. Vincent pulled his copy open and began to go through each one with her, ensuring she understood them all properly.

"You will be appointed as Acting Lieutenant now that you are commencing stage 2, that promotion will be from when you sign this document this afternoon" said Vincent. Katherine looked up at him. "Thank you Sir, but why do I receive such a large promotion? Not that I am complaining of course" she smiled at him. "For two reasons – one because the work that you will be doing will now deserve that level of rank and the other because any member of G Squad who is at least ranked as a Lieutenant, whether Acting or otherwise, has the ability to take command of any situation encountered involving WRO staff and also to gain authority to access any WRO facility without permission of the highest ranked officer at that particular facility. The only exception is the Commissioners own offices, which require the Director or in his absence myself to enter without the permission of the Commissioner" explained Vincent.

Katherine nodded as her eye skimmed the promotion clause again. "I think Sir that the only other question I have is in relation to my quarters. I gather from this contract that I will be relocated from the training facility?" she asked. "That is correct. G Squad has our own personal quarters facility over here and you will be housed there with us. The rooms are actually a lot nicer than the training facility and you get to choose your own colour schemes and furniture, which will never happen in the training facility" he added. "You lie, Host – if Katherine asked for new curtains in her old room, you would have them installed for her within two hours" sniped Chaos. Vincent decided to ignore him.

Glancing at his watch, Vincent saw that an hour had already passed and it was now 6pm. "I think that you should go to the dining room and get something to eat and then return here as soon as you have finished. I want to show you the whole of the facility, as well as your proposed room and then start going over some general limit break information with you. I realise it's going to eat in to your evening, but I suspect you would prefer that anyway rather than having to wait until tomorrow to view it all" said Vincent. Katherine nodded and picked up her pen and signed the bottom of her contract. "Thank you – here is your copy to keep for your information. If you do have any questions that come to you afterwards, let me know" added Vincent.

As Katherine got up to go, Vincent said "one more thing – in G Squad, with the exception of the Director, we are all on first name terms, Katherine." Katherine actually blushed slightly. "Thank you, Sir". "It's Vincent, Katherine – it's Vincent" he said as she smiled and then walked out of the door.

As soon as she closed the door, Vincent felt his erection start to harden again at the thought of her spending so much time with him. He fully intended working towards attracting her to him so that he could ask her out on dates and – hopefully – eventually end up in bed with her. Given that Vincent was not really interested in casual relationships, he knew that what he was hoping for was a committed relationship with her. He put his hand down between his thighs, enjoying the feeling of his hand wandering up and down his bulge as he thought of her. A session in his office bathroom was now called for – rising up, he headed to the bathroom, locking the door behind him and unzipping his leather pants.

His hardened member stood alert between his muscular thighs, reaching up over his stomach. Vincent's penis was large, there was no doubt about that and it also had a large girth – he looked forward to exhibiting it to her at some time in the future, if he played his cards right. Reaching down, he moulded one had around his tight balls and started to massage them as the other firmly gripped his cock and began to run up and down – he leant against the wall next to the toilet, with his end pointed out over the open toilet bowl. He grunted to himself as he thought of her smile – how he loved her beautiful lips and her sweet looking mouth – he could imagine it placed around his cock, sucking him as he mouth fucked her intently, watching her receive his cum in her mouth and swallow it. He groaned as he continued to massage his cock – gods, this felt so good. The pace of his strokes increased as his thighs started to thrust forward – he groaned again as his cum shot out from his engorged member, aiming it down the centre of the toilet. As he finished he stroked himself a few more times to squeeze out every last drop of his hot cum and then reached across for some tissue paper to wipe himself clean. He felt so good now and was looking forward to seeing her again after dinner and showing her the room that was proposed for her. There were two sets of rooms on each floor – so far he had remained on his own on his floor, which he was now pleased about as Katherine would be rooming next door to him.

40 minutes later Katherine returned, clutching some takeaway containers with her. "I wanted to be quick, so I decided to bring dessert with me" she said – "I hope you like banana caramel dessert" she finished hopefully. Vincent smiled at her – "I suppose I should provide the coffee then" he suggested, reaching around for the coffee jug. Katherine smiled "I was hoping you would say that, the dining room provides cheap instant coffe I swear". Vincent accepted his dessert and dipped his spoon in. If she had asked him to eat boiled slugs, he would do it if it made her happy he realised.

They ate in silence for a few minutes, enjoying their desserts and then threw the containers in the bin. "Now to start on the guided tour that you didn't see during the opening ceremony" said Vincent. "On the way I will show you the room that is currently available". They set off along the corridor, with Vincent opening doors and explaining to her the use of each room and the internal communication systems available in each room and in each corridor. Katherine was amazed to see the medical facility he showed her. She had assumed that G Squad would be treated in the main medical facility that Chrissie was attached to but apparently that was not the case. After an hour of walking around and Katherine becoming convinced she would get lost the first time she had to walk anywhere on her own, Vincent headed up to the next floor and walked through an elevated corridor that attached the main headquarters to the personal quarters. From the outside of the building, you would not even know it existed. Vincent opened both security doors at each end of the elevated corridor and then they were in what Katherine thought to herself as "boy land". At least, it would be until she moved in to her room, she realised. Vincent led her down the stairs rather than take the lift and they started the tour on the ground floor.

The ground floor comprised some guest bedrooms for approved guests – who were not allowed on the upper floors – and some lounge room, dining and kitchen facilities. These were only available to be used by guests of G Squad, such as her parents and her sister, Vincent explained. Katherine wondered whether her sister had in fact already seen them with Zak and from the way Vincent avoided her eyes when he told her, she rather thought that he knew the answer. Then he led the way back to the stairs and Katherine realised that the access way could only be opened by a member of G Squad using their security passes. The way out did not require a pass and Katherine realised it was due to fire regulations. It was only possible to operate the door handle from that side though.

On the first floor were located Troy and and Kristian, with Darren and Zak on floor 2. Vincent was on floor 3. Floor 4 comprised rooms for Cloud and Tifa and their childen and the same for Cid and Shera Highwind and their children. Floor 5 was Reno and Rude from the Turks when they were in the facility and the floor above them was Yuffie and her family and Elena. Apparently Tseng never stayed in the facility. Nanaki and Wallace Barret and his wife Elmyra usually used the ground floor guest rooms when they were in town, since it happened very rarely. This meant that the only room unoccupied at the moment was on Vincent's floor. Although there was another wing that would be brought in to use when the number of G Squad members increased, this might be some time in the future.

Katherine felt slightly pink as she walked on to Vincent's floor with him. She had absolutely no objection whatsoever to sharing the same floor as him, in fact she was rather – pleased. Vincent unlocked the door to the vacant apartment and she walked in. She gave a gasp of surprise – although Vincent had told her that the rooms were nicer than in the training facility she had not realised just how nice they were. They were in effect executive style units, comprising two large bedrooms, both with very tasteful and well appointed ensuites, a large lounge, separate dining room, study, small library, laundry, a separate bathroom for guests to use without having to access an ensuite and one of the most beautiful and useful kitchens that Katherine had ever seen.

The only thing that Katherine did not really find very appealing was the painting, matching curtains and the carpet. It was best described as mustard yellow with swirls of what looked cat sick. Vincent was learning against the door frame, with his arms folded, watching her as she moved around. She walked back towards him. "What do you think?" he asked. "Well, to be honest, the apartment has to be one of the most beautiful that I have ever seen and certainly the most wonderful one that I have had the opportunity of living in. But umm – well it's the colour" she said a bit red faced. "The colour? You mean you don't like cat vomit?" asked Vincent, straight faced. Katherine looked at him – she knew what she would have replied to Darren or Troy making that comment, but although she might have been on first name times for the last couple of hours with him, there was no way she was going to respond to Vincent in the same way. "It's umm – probably most appealing to cats" she stuttered, entirely unsure of whether he was joking or really didn't see anything wrong with the colour. "Come with me" said Vincent and walked across to the floor to his own unit.

He opened the door and held it open for her, gesturing her to walk in to the lounge room. As she walked in, she noticed immediately the colour scheme – although it would not be her first choice it was something she could have lived with and in fact was absolutely perfect for Vincent – tones of mid to slate grey, dark curtains and a grey carpet. It was a very male interior and was tastefully done. "Did you not like cat vomit, Vincent?" Katherine asked innocently. Vincent smirked and pointed to some colour leaflets on his coffee table. "At least I was more polite than what Yuffie called it" he said. "You can take those and decide on the colours that you would like. It will take one day for it to be redecorated, recarpeted and recurtained. And no, I have no idea who came up with that masterpiece for a colour scheme. When we first arrived here, every single room was in that colour".

Katherine took the leaflets and as her eyes skimmed over them, she could already see what would suit her perfectly in her unit. "You can also select your furniture from the general store in the main building. If you show them your G Squad pass when you go there, you'll be shown the correct options. They will also provide you with all bedding, towels etc – anything that you need in fact. The unit is provided as part of your benefits so you don't have to outlay anything unless you find items that you choose to provide yourself" Vincent explained. Katherine really did smile then this was going to be a wonderful experience, even if at the end she did fail to complete the final stage of the program.

"Now, you may have noticed that it is now 8pm. I would like to talk to you about my own limit breaks, to try and give you some background on some of the abilities that people can have. Due to the time and the fact that the actual offices have now closed down, we can either go back in there but the building will be mainly in the dark, or else we can be seated here in a more relaxed atmosphere, it is up to you and what will make you feel more comfortable. However, wherever you prefer to go, I will need to take 10 minutes to shower since I have had a long day and need to freshen up a little" explained Vincent. "Why don't you take those leaflets back in to your unit and walk around with them, then if you come to a decision you can make a note of the colour codes for each area and we can have them sent across this evening so that they start work first thing in the morning" suggested Vincent "and I will be there shortly to see what you have decided on". Katherine nodded and headed out to her unit, drawing her notebook out of her pocket to make some notes.

Vincent walked quickly to his bedroom and headed in to the bathroom to shower. "Nice plan, Host – she is bound to choose to stay here, since you have not made a big issue out of it and did not expect her to sit there and listen to you while you were in the shower" commented Chaos "just don't put that stupid cloak and leather pants back on". Vincent rolled his eyes – since when had Chaos become a fashion advisor. He showered quickly and dressed in a pair of jeans and a long black shirt, designed to be worn over the top of them. He then found the black leather thong that Yuffie had made him tie his hair up in the other day and then slipped on a pair of thongs, to maintain his relaxed and casual appearance. He could not believe that he was actually taking so much care over what he wore – not only had he come a long way since he said good bye to Lucretia three years ago, but his desire to impress Katherine was even stronger than when he had first met Lucretia.

Walking across to Katherine's unit, he was not surprised to see she had a page of code numbers and descriptions written against each room and was just finishing the lounge room. She glanced up as he came in "I've just got four more codes to write down and I'm done" she said. Vincent nodded, glancing again at the old colour scheme. 6 years ago he doubted that he would have even noticed what it was. 3 years ago he would have noticed it, but not been bothered by it. 2 years ago, he would have wondered why he was not bothered by it. And one year ago he had submitted his colour codes with no hesitation. Katherine finished her writing and came over to him. "Ok, all done now" she said smiling. "I'll just send that list off for you now and then we can make a start" said Vincent. Katherine tore the page off and handed it to him, Vincent walked to his study and a moment later she heard some communication device start up. "He must have a fax machine in there" she thought to herself. He brought her notes and the cover sheet he had sent back and handed it to her. "There we are, all done. Now, where would you like to make a start, is my lounge room satisfactory?" he asked. "Yes, that will be fine" Katherine responded and so Vincent flicked off the last of the lights in her unit and locked the door, handing her the key.

They each chose a comfy armchair in Vincent's lounge room and she noticed that Vincent had produced yet more coffee, which she took gratefully. She was a little anxious about what might occur, but was no longer scared. "Well, where to start. As you were told earlier, I have four demons inside of me as my limit breaks. They are however very unusual limit breaks in as much as two of them are in fact natural entities, ie they were alive thousands of years ago on this planet alongside humans. The other two are more contrived, however even though they may not be of natural birth, they do now exist as real demons, albeit they are all only inside of me. Three of them were forced in to me during some experiments by Shinra – none of them had any choice and neither did I. They exist inside me – well we are not sure exactly how, however they are inside my mind alongside my own brain. They are able to see and hear my thoughts and my memories to a degree, although I only share theirs if they speak with the intention of me hearing them. That may be either directly to me, or to each other but with them wanting me to hear them".

Katherine nodded to indicate she understood what he had said so far. "The three were Galian Beast, a natural demon and the limit break I encountered first, Hellmasker a contrived being and Death Vigas who is also a contrived being. Death Vigas was the one who assisted you earlier on this afternoon. He spoke to me in my mind, telling me to tell you to look in to my eyes and be aware of my breathing and telling me to let him have some control. I did so and he rose up and it was him you were looking at when you looked at my eyes and his sense of calm that you experienced. Once he was satisfied you were calm and your breathing was under control, he gave full control back to me. Had I refused him control he could not have taken it and I could have removed it at any time, just as an indication to you of the level of control I do possess.

"I see. In that case, I would like to say thank you, Death Vigas" said Katherine. Vincent could feel Death Vigas's stunned reaction inside of him – even Yuffie had not really had much contact with him, he tended to be shy around anyone other than his fellow demons and Vincent. He seemed to be happy that Katherine had found him important enough to offer her thanks. "He is happy that you acknowledged him, he did not expect it" Vincent explained.

"To continue, sometime after I was provided with a potion to drink by someone who gave me to understand that it would help both me and the planet. I really had no idea what was to occur and in that sense I had no choice, although I do admit it was my decision to take the potion. The potion in fact contained the other natural entity, the last of the demons to join inside of me – Chaos. How best to describe Chaos – he is ancient and powerful as I said before and his intellect is unique. He can hear and see everything that I do and access all of my thoughts and memories when he wants to. He is in effect the leader of the demons – he is able to control them if they get out of hand within. By that I mean that they can on occasion be annoying both to him and to myself when they want to be. Chaos can also be annoying when he feels like it. If I am in need of his assistance, he will always give it, he cannot refuse to – none of them can when it is me that needs them".

"I have to say that Chaos has never attempted to try and refuse me, even when we were – not on the best of terms. That is something that I would rather not go in to now, the history of my demons and I goes beyond what you need to know about limit breaks. However, if I am attempting to defend myself beyond what is really sensible, Chaos will tell me to give him control – that is partly what I mean by him never having attempted to refuse me help. If I leave it too long and become severely hurt, Chaos can in fact rise up and transform me in to him in order that he can attack our enemies. I then go inside of him and in fact his body helps heal me. This is rather complex and not what would happen with most limit breaks".

"While Chaos and I now have – well to be honest, friendship is the best way to describe it, this has not always been the case. Chaos was also angry at being inserted within me, although as I have discovered in more recent years, he has never blamed me for it. He strikes fear in all who see him, even those that fight alongside of me, with one exception – Yuffie. She has simply viewed him as a part of me and therefore while she knows he is capable of anything, she has also always assumed that he would not hurt her, as I would never hurt her. Chaos is now more – light hearted I think is a suitable term. I now trust him and I know that he would never hurt those alongside of me, even if they are terrified that he will. But to those that strike against me – he is death. He is Chaos".

Vincent fell silent for a few minutes, his eyes were in the distance and it looked as if he was lost deep in thought. Then it occurred to Katherine – he was talking to his demons with his mind. Vincent then looked at Katherine again. "We think that for now we have probably provided you with as much background as you need at this stage. We need to bear in mind that you do not contain demons, so teaching you too much about mine might create a false expectation in your mind about your own abilities. As time progresses, you will of course come to know more about them, simply through being around me".

"Thank you, Vincent. The fact that you are able to talk with your demons and tell me that you can trust them does make me feel more confident about finding out about my own limit breaks. And I believe it is thanks to Chaos that I even know about them now" said Katherine. "It is" agreed Vincent "had Chaos not wondered about them earlier on this morning, I would have no idea that you had them. In addition, had something adverse happened due to your lack of knowledge, Chaos would have felt guilty since he had assumed that I realised that you did have them" concluded Vincent. "Then I offer my thanks to Chaos as well" said Katherine. Vincent looked deep in thought again and Katherine knew that he was once again conversing with them.

"Katherine, I have a request from Chaos. He says he will understand if it is too soon for you. He would like to meet you". Katherine looked at Vincent wide eyed. "How can he do that?" she asked. "I can give up some control to him that allows him to use my eyes and my voice – that is all, he cannot transform and he cannot do any harm to you or anyone else. He would simply like to say 'hello' if you are comfortable with that. But as I said, he also understands if you feel that you are not yet ready for it". Katherine thought for a few moments. "When would I ever be ready for something if I did not decide to take a step forward?" she replied. "Thank you, Katherine" said Vincent.

In front of her eyes, Katherine saw Vincent's eyes begin to change from red to black and yellow. She suddenly realised that she was looking at Chaos himself. "Hello, Chaos" she said a little timidly. Vincent's mouth split in to a huge grin and Chaos replied "Katherine", pronouncing her name in what to her sounded a lovely way. "Thank you for helping me today, Chaos" she spoke to him again. "You are welcome Katherine" he replied. "My Host helped you too" he stated. "Your Host?" queried Katherine. "You call him Vincent" said Chaos. "I see. Then I must thank him too, you are right to remind me – so much has happened today I have forgotten to focus on my manners and my thanks" she responded.

"Do not fear your entity, Katherine. I will be there when you release it, inside of my Host. I will be watching and if you need help with it, my Host will transform me if needed. You will be quite safe and we will find out what you are able to do" stated Chaos. Katherine was touched. "Thank you Chaos, I appreciate that". "You only transform when your Host needs you, from what he told me" she said, mainly as something to say – she was a bit awkward talking to him for the first time, although she was not afraid. "I can emerge like this without his knowledge, when he is sleeping. Since I make better conversation than him, you may wish to use your sleep materia when he is being boring" sniggered Chaos. Katherine had to laugh. It seemed that Chaos also had a sense of humour. "I bet he did not let that comment go unanswered" she said smiling at him. "That is true, but since you cannot hear him at the moment, you can ignore him" Chaos sniggered again. Katherine burst in to a real peal of laughter at that comment. She had no doubt that she and Chaos could have a very entertaining conversation once she was a little more relaxed around him.

"Your Host tells me that you walked this planet thousands of years ago. Can I ask if you have an eternal life, Chaos?" she asked. "To some extent – it is possible that I can be killed if something is able to overcome me" he said "but no one ever has, not even Omega had the power to do that, although it was close". "Your Host also told me that you are an ancient and mighty demon with a unique intellect – he forgot to mention that you also have a sense of humour, Chaos" she said smiling at him. "You will get to know me better over time Katherine" he said. "My Host wishes to return now – he is getting jealous of me" chuckled Chaos. Katherine could imagine the comments that Vincent was now making to him. "I must go for now – but understand that I will defend you, Katherine – nothing will be allowed to hurt you and I will look after you" said Chaos "and so will my brother demons. You will in time come to meet them too, but know that they will look after you as much as I and my Host will" concluded Chaos. She saw the yellow and black eyes fade and the red return to them and then Vincent was back. Vincent looked at her and rolled his eyes "remind me to hide your sleep materia" he said, making Katherine laugh again.

"Thank you, Vincent, for allowing me to meet him. I somehow feel more comfortable about discovering my own limit breaks now, even though I understand that mine will be different from your demons. And thank you too for the help you have given me today". Katherine then stifled a yawn. "I'm so sorry" she said, blushing "I've suddenly become so tired after everything that I have been through today". "Its fine, I believe that Death Vigas may have been sending out some relaxation to you to help you to sleep tonight. They don't always ask me before they do some things if they think that what they are doing is right". He looked at the clock. "It is now 10pm and you have had a hard day. I will walk back across with you since I doubt if you will find your way around this building in the dark". They both stood up and headed to the door. As he opened the door for her, they passed closely to each other – he suddenly wished he could hold her close to him and give her comfort and courage in his arms. But then he realised it was way too soon to attempt that and after the day she had experienced, would only be likely to create an uncomfortable feeling between them.

They walked through the building and came outside. Vincent was prepared to walk her back to her sleeping quarters, but she obviously assumed he had not intended to do that as she turned to him and held out her hand. "Good night Vincent, I will see you in the morning in G Squad" she smiled and was gone, the scent of her freesias lingering in the night air behind her.


	7. Chapter 7  The WRO is attacked

It's still Easter hols, it's the middle of Autumn here in Australia and its COLD! So I'm going to post a couple more chapters to pass the chilly wet days!

alesana4ever – you are quite right about Sturge, he is the Director of G Squad. Chapters 1 and 2 will give more background to this but this quote from Chapter 1 _"All members of AVALANCHE are of course members of G Squad, even though only some of them actually have active participation in the squad. But G squad also comprises some of the best warriors that exist – and the squad will continue to gradually increase as more elite warriors are found." _– this is from one of the first conversations, between Reeve and Rufus Shinra. In two chapters on, you will also see that the one who does take control of what they have to do is a member of AVALANCHE who also of course is an active member of G Squad (but of course I'm not going to say who it is in advance of that chapter!).

Dontgotaclue88 – I just had to post chapter 6 today since you were keen to read it – chapter 7 is also posted tonight.

Hope everyone else who reads it, enjoys it. We have been lucky to have a few new chapters and new stories posted in the last few days, one of the joys we have of reading

7. **The WRO is attacked**

Katherine's alarm went off at 6am and she hit the shower running. With everything that had happened the previous day, she had a lot to tell both Chrissie and her parents and she needed to get hold of them before her day started. At 6.30am she texted Chrissie "urgent news, need to talk now, where are you?". Chrissie replied straight away "on way to dining hall, do I come to you?". Katherine replied "see you there in a few minutes" and finished tying her hair in to a braid. Although she did not have to start until 9am, she had to catch hold of Chrissie and her parents early, before they left for work. Grabbing her keys, she went out of the door and headed over to the dining room.

Chrissie had managed to get hold of one of the few two seater tables, which were usually already full, and had orange juice and coffee and a plate of cooked breakfast, diced fruit and cereal lined up in front of Katherine's chair. "I didn't know what you would fancy this morning, so got a bit of everything" grinned Chrissie, "now tell me what this urgent news is and who it is I have to kill for you and when the baby is due". Katherine rolled her eyes at her sister as she gulped some orange juice down. "I'm not the one who has a boyfriend, smart ass" she said, wiping her mouth with a napkin. To her delight, Chrissie actually blushed. "We're just friends – kind of" she stuttered. It was Katherine's turn to grin – "kind of? As in you're having sex kind of, you're holding hands kind of, meeting his parents kind of, or what". "Alright, alright – maybe I saw him on Sunday afternoon. And maybe Sunday evening. And possibly last night. And maybe I might be seeing him tonight too" Chrissie had her head hanging down a bit self consciously. "Ok, so I think we can establish that he is your boy friend" laughed Katherine "maybe when you find you're not seeing him one night we can catch up and you can tell me about it, oh obsessed one".

She took a sip of her coffee and looked at Chrissie. "I have some news for you that is on a major scale and has lots of bits to it but I don't have time to go over it all before you need to head off and I need to call mum and dad, so I am going to give you the main points and go over the rest with you at dinner tonight". Chrissie became more serious and nodded. "It's actually good news, terrific news, but it's also very strange news – so if you can manage not to interrupt me I'll try and tell you as much of it as I can. Umm where to start – ok you know that Yuffie lent me some materia, well yesterday morning I had my class with Vincent from 9am as Cloud was late arriving here. He went over the materia with me and then apparently after I left, Chaos said to him that he wondered what my limit breaks were. You know who Chaos is?" she said looking at Chrissie. Chrissie nodded – "demon that killed Omega, helped AVALANCHE, lives inside Vincent Valentine". "Damn, you know more than I did. Anyway, Vincent told him that I don't have one and Chaos told him that I actually have three. As I hadn't put it on my application form, Vincent was rather puzzled by this and between them he and Chaos came up with the view that I have had them since birth, but my parents were going to tell me when I was older but of course they disappeared so I never found out".

She raised her eyes at Chrissie. "This is the condensed version, ok?". Chrissie nodded again, looking at her intently. "So, I ended up having to meet with Director Sturge, Ms Black, Vincent, Cloud and Zak in the afternoon – if your brain freezes because I mentioned your boyfriend I am going to slap you mind. They told me about my limit breaks and I kind of freaked out and in the end Vincent had to actually get one of his demons to calm me down so I could breathe properly. Finally I kind of managed to accept what they had told me and the Director told me that Vincent had cleared his schedule for this week and I would be working with him all week to find out about my limit breaks and understand them and learn to use them. Once I had accepted that, he moved on to the next bit".

"They decided that as I have these limit breaks, staying in the Elite course and G Squad stage 1 is not a good idea. I am therefore now off of both of those courses". She took a pause to drink some more orange juice, giving Chrissie an opening. "Well at least now I know who it is I have to kill – how dare they pull you off of those courses!" said Chrissie in a rage. "It's ok, it's ok, it's all good" said Katherine. "Instead they have put me on to stage 2 of the G Squad program, I signed up last night and I start at 9am this morning." Chrissie's mouth now dropped open. "Plus, as part of the course, I am now an Acting Lieutenant and have access to G Squad headquarters." "Oh gods, Kate, that is wonderful!" screeched Chrissie, her mood now completely swung around. Katherine nodded. "That's not all – I have to relocate to G Squad personal quarters" – seeing Chrissie blush made Katherine realise she was right in her assumption about Chrissie having been there with Zak already – "and so I was given a room last night, allowed to choose the colour scheme etc which has already been ordered and I am now on the same floor as Vincent Valentine". It was now Kate's turn to blush slightly as she told her sister this bit.

"Today I get to go and order all the furniture etc and I guess I will be moving in sometime this week when it's all ready for me". Another gulp of orange juice with this time Chrissie remaining quiet and waiting for her to continue. "After that, Vincent told me a bit about his own limit breaks, the four demons, and then I ended up meeting Chaos!". Chrissie's mouth hung open again "you met him? How do you mean you met him, he's a demon!" she gasped. "I only saw a bit of him, Vincent let him have some control so he could use Vincent's eyes – Chaos's are black and yellow by the way – and his mouth so he could talk to me. He has a really nice voice and was so kind and friendly. Anyway, after he went back inside, I got really embarrassed as I started yawning at Vincent, but he told me that he thought one of his demons had actually been relaxing me so that I would sleep well and so he took me back to the outside and he was right – I slept like a log all night, thanks to his demon, Death Vigas. He's the one that calmed me down in the meeting too, by the way".

"So today I have to meet with Vincent to start learning about my limit breaks and pick out my furniture like I said" finished Katherine, beaming at Chrissie. "Wow – just wow, Kate. That is so awesome! I am so pleased for you, you so totally deserve all this". Katherine just continued to sit there and beam at her she was so wrapped up in what had been happening. Then suddenly something dawned on her. "Chrissie, you actually haven't said anything about my limit breaks" she said looking at Chrissie intently. "I haven't? Well of course there was so much you had to tell me, I'm still processing it all in at the moment" explained Chrissie, refusing to meet her eyes. "Chrissie, did you know about them?" asked Katherine. Just then the bell rang. "Oh sorry Kate, I have to run – I am so pleased at your news, I will see you at dinner and we can talk about it some more" she said, leaping up and grabbing her bag, then bending over Kate and hugging her before running out of the dining room. Katherine sat there absolutely stunned. Chrissie had known about her limit breaks, there was absolutely no doubt in her mind. Which meant that her parents also knew about them. All of a sudden Katherine lost her desire to go and call her parents before they left for work she was feeling a bit sick at her realisation and not really sure what to do next.

Katherine sat at the table for 10 minutes without even moving. She was shocked at the thought that her parents and Chrissie had known all about this but had never thought they should tell her, even though they knew she was applying to the WRO and in fact had even seen her completed application form. Which meant that they knew she had applied under false pretences in relation to her limit breaks. A shadow fell across her and she looked up at last. "Good morning Katherine – are you alright? We've been watching you since your sister left the hall over 10 minutes ago and you haven't moved an inch, you look rather shocked". It was Vincent. "I am shocked Vincent, I am – I've just discovered that Chrissie and my parents knew about my limit breaks but for some reason have never told me about them, even though they knew I had applied to the WRO without disclosing them. I shouldn't even be telling you this, I haven't even spoken to my parents yet, but I can't believe that they knew and have never told me".

Vincent realised that Katherine really was shaken up at the moment. "Host, take her out of here so people can't see her" said Chaos. "Come Katherine, let us walk back to your rooms now" said Vincent gently. Katherine looked at him for a few moments then seemed to realise what he had said to her and stood up. Together they began walking out of the dining hall towards her quarters. From the corner of his eye, Vincent noticed Chrissie going in to one of her classes, her eyes locked on to Katherine with a worried look on her face. In his opinion Katherine was right, Chrissie obviously did know something about them. He noticed that Chrissie was texting someone and he doubted it would be Zak, he was pretty sure it was their parents and Chrissie was letting them know that Katherine now knew about her limit breaks. While he was sure that Chrissie loved her sister, it made him wonder what else they knew that they had not told Katherine.

Arriving at her quarters, Katherine unlocked the door. Vincent reached over and pushed it open for her, guiding her in gently. He had been careful not to draw any attention to them while walking through the facility by touching her, but now they were out of sight Vincent no longer cared. He led her over to the couch and sat her down, taking a seat next to her this time. "Why would they not have told me?" she said quietly. "I don't know Katherine – it could have been for many reasons, may be they meant to tell you when you were older but then left it too late and suddenly you were applying to the WRO and they didn't know what to say to you" he offered, trying not to say anything at this stage that might upset her more than he had to. "It doesn't mean that what they did was right, but it also does not mean that they held it back deliberately, it may have been more due to their lack of understanding and uncertainty about what to do" he suggested. Suddenly Katherine's phone rang and she pulled it out and looked at it. "Apparently, now they would like to tell me" she said sarcastically and with that hurled the phone at the wall where it hit it hard and cracked along its side. He'd been right, he thought to himself, Chrissie had been texting them.

Suddenly Katherine burst in to tears and without even thinking about it, Vincent pulled her in to his arms and held her against his chest while she cried. This was the first time he'd held a woman like this in years, apart from Yuffie after Aeries had died. He didn't feel any form of arousal, all he felt was sorrow that this beautiful woman had been betrayed, albeit may be unintentionally, by the people that loved her. As her tears fell down her face and her shoulders shuddered as she gasped for breath, he felt a surge of rage towards her foster father. That he could have allowed this situation to evolve made Vincent feel so angry – it was wrong, just wrong, to allow his young foster daughter to discover it in the way that she had when he could have prevented it years ago.

After a few minutes, Katherine's crying stopped and she drew back from Vincent. "I am so sorry, you must think I'm an idiot acting like a small child" she said, wiping her tears from her face with her hands. "You are not an idiot and neither have you behaved like a small child – you have been in shock after receiving some extremely unbelievable news. Go and wash your face and dry your eyes" instructed Vincent. Katherine nodded and headed in to her bedroom, shutting the door behind her. Vincent wasted no time, pulling out his phone he placed a call and said "please come to Katherine's rooms now, she is in shock and needs an older woman with her". He listened to the reply and then disconnected the call. By the time Katherine reappeared from her bedroom there was a knock at her door, which Vincent strode over to and opened. Ms Black came inside and went to Katherine immediately, gathering her in her arms and nodding at Vincent to go. Vincent nodded in reply and exited the rooms, heading back across with the intention of seeing the Director immediately.

As he arrived in the main squad office, Zak came over smiling at him. "Morning Vincent how's Katherine today?" he asked good naturedly. "Why don't you ask her sister" replied Vincent, continuing on his way to the Director's office and leaving a stunned looking Zak in his wake. He knocked on the door and opened it without waiting for a reply and then immediately started talking angrily to Sturge. Sturge was used to Vincent and realised that something serious had happened for him to behave in this way. He allowed him to continue ranting in rage for 10 minutes and then decided it was time for him to calm down.

"Vincent, sit down please and calm yourself" he said holding Vincent's gaze firmly. Vincent stood breathing hard for a moment and then sat on the chair opposite Sturge, trying to get hold of his temper. He could feel Chaos raging inside too and the other demons were also not happy. "Where is Katherine now?" Sturge asked. "I escorted her back to her rooms from the dining room and then contacted Ms Black. She is with her at the moment" he replied. Sturge nodded, at least Vincent had contacted the most appropriate person to deal with Katherine for the time being. "And how is Chaos reacting at the moment?" Sturge asked. Vincent looked at him – he knew that Sturge was not a fool and had more of an understanding of Chaos than most people that had encountered him. "He is not happy" hissed Chaos from Vincent's mouth – Sturge understood, Vincent had allowed Chaos to reply himself to register his dissatisfaction.

Sturge also understood that when Vincent was angry, Chaos could sometimes calm him down and vice versa. When they were both furious it was not a good situation and Sturge had no doubt that the rest of Vincent's demons would also be fanning the fires at the moment. "Vincent, Chaos, you both need to understand that if you are going to help Katherine right now, she needs you to be calm. You cannot afford to get angry with her sister or her parents yourself at this moment in time – only Katherine can do that and she will need advice and guidance and you have been appointed as her trainers". Sturge had no hesitation in including Chaos as well. Sturge continued to sit there and watch Vincent. He was obviously in discussion with Chaos and Sturge just hoped that the two of them were not plotting something that he would have to veto. He was rather surprised at Vincent's reaction and felt that there was a lot more involved from his perspective than Sturge had been aware of.

Vincent got up again and began pacing around the room. "You saw how shocked Katherine was by all of this yesterday, Sturge, you saw how hard it was for her to come to terms with this, she succeeded and last night we had a good start to our session and now she's been hit for six by the one group of people that she would trust more than anyone else on this planet and left down in the gutter again" he raged. Sturge was actually beginning to wonder whether Vincent might even be approaching a transformation himself, Sturge had in all honesty never seen him so angry in the three years that he had known him. "What else have they been keeping from her? Do they know what happened to her parents? Were they in some way involved with Shinra themselves and placed in charge of her in order to provide information back to Shinra about her parents? I swear Sturge, if they have been betraying her all these years, they will suffer" and with those words Vincent suddenly drove his claw in to the wall of Sturge's office. He unleashed all of his strength and his claw disappeared right through it, being visible in the main office.

Cloud looked up and walked straight in without even bothering to knock. "Vincent, do we have a problem here?" he asked calmly, holding Vincent direct in his eyes and not wavering from it. Sturge let Cloud step in – he had no fear of dealing with Vincent, but he understood that Cloud had known him longer and had been involved with him closely over the years. Apart from Yuffie he doubted whether anyone else knew as much about Vincent as Cloud did. Vincent held Cloud's gaze and finally his rage seemed to begin to die down – Cloud continued to calmly look at him until eventually Vincent turned to Sturge and said "I'm sorry" and sat back down again.

Cloud lent against the wall with his arms crossed, reminding Sturge very much of Vincent, but he made no further comment and just stayed in the background in case he was needed. "Apology accepted, Vincent. We do need to decide how to move forward on this situation now" Sturge said.

"I think I need to go to Wutai" said Vincent. "Why Wutai?" said Sturge, trying to follow Vincent's line of thoughts. "Because Yuffie knows something about what happened to Katherine's parents. Their mothers were friends, Katherine's parents were warriors. They aided the Empress against Shinra and disappeared the night that Sepiroth killed Yuffie's mother. Yuffie said that Chekov and Gorky know what happened and she was going to ask them and get back to me – I think I can't wait for that, I need to go to her and talk to them". "Does Katherine know what happened?" asked Sturge. "When I spoke to Yuffie she was not sure whether Katherine would have known or not. Bear in mind that Yuffie was only 9 when her mother was killed and Katherine was 11 and according to Yuffie, Katherine was not in Wutai the night it all happened. Yuffie believes that Katherine's parents died that night, but she also thinks that Chekov and Gorky don't believe that. I need to find out what happened and how Katherine's foster parents are linked to what happened. My personal belief is that Katherine has never been told the truth of what happened that night" explained Vincent.

Sturge was silent for a moment, his mind going over the information that Vincent had given him. "Very well Vincent – you go to Wutai now. In the meantime, I am going to have Katherine's foster parents brought here for questioning and also her foster sister. They may not be involved as you suspect, but they obviously have more information that we need if we are going to assist Katherine in finding out the truth about her parents and her background. I will have the Highwind sent to collect her foster parents – I believe that it is currently in Nibelhelm as Shera has been spending some time with Tifa?" he asked looking at Cloud. Cloud nodded – "Cid was fetching Shera and the kids this morning to take them back to Rocket Town. I think Tifa should return with them, I believe she will want to hear about this as she and Yuffie have discussed something about it already". Vincent looked up at him surprised, Cloud shrugged "Yuffie and Tifa, Vincent – who knows what they have been up to".

"Very well" said Sturge "I will contact Highwind now and you head to Wutai. Let me know what you find out Vincent, it may be useful when I question her foster parents". Vincent nodded and stood up. Just then Sturge's secretary Rebecca buzzed through to the office. Sturge knew that Rebecca would have heard what happened with Vincent earlier on and therefore if she was buzzing through to him he knew it was important. "Yes, Rebecca?" he replied. "Sir, I have the Empress of Wutai on the phone, she wishes to speak immediately to you and Commander Valentine". Vincent swung his head around to look at Sturge and sat down again as Sturge said "put her through please Rebecca".

"Good morning, Yuffie" said Sturge. "Ken (Yuffie was one of the few not to bother with the Director's title since she was of course an Empress and – well, she was Yuffie), is Vincent there too?" she asked. "Yes, Yuffie" responded Vincent. "Good – listen, I am about to leave for Kalm now and I am bringing Chekov and Gorky with me. We'll be there in about an hour. Vincent, can you please tell Ken what I told you the other day, it will save time when we get there. You need to hear what they have to say. Oh, and you need to bring Katherine's foster parents in to Kalm urgently too". "Don't worry Yuffie, we are doing that this morning and they will be held accountable" said Vincent in a hard voice. "Don't be ridiculous Vincent, Katherine's foster parents have been protecting Katherine for years and have been in regular contact with Chekov and Gorky almost from the time Katherine first went to them. They are now at risk themselves and need our protection as well as having to fill in the gaps in the information we have" said Yuffie. Vincent looked rather taken aback. "One last thing – Katherine must be brought to G Squad now and held under your protection until we get there to explain what is happening – let no one else in Vincent, just G Squad and Katherine's foster parents and sister. Ok we are leaving now, I'll see you in an hour" and Yuffie disconnected her call. "Host, what is going on?" asked Chaos. "I don't know Chaos, but we will be finding out in about an hour from the sounds of it". "I'll go and fetch Katherine, Chrissie and Ms Black and bring them here" said Vincent standing again and heading towards the door. "I'll come with you" said Cloud and followed him out, slipping his sword on to his back as Sturge picked up his phone and contacted Cid Highwind. They all of them got the distinct feeling that something was not right but had no idea what was happening until Yuffie got there.

As Vincent and Cloud reached the outside of the building and turned towards Katherine's personal quarters, an enormous blast sounded across the facility followed by the sound of gun fire. The two of them broke in to a run as alarms began sounding around the facility and security guards began emerging in large numbers. Trainees were panicking – not all of them were warriors and to hear the sounds of gun fire within their training centre was not something they ever expected to happen. Other doors opened and Elite warrior trainees came out behind their instructors, weapons drawn and heading towards the sound of the gun fire. Vincent and Cloud continued on their way to Katherine's quarters, they realised that this was happening in relation to her for some reason and that whoever was attacking was trying to draw armed staff away from where Katherine was located.

From behind they could hear the rest of G Squad running after them, obviously given their target by Sturge as they too were ignoring the direction the main gun fire was sounding from. As they drew close to Katherine's building Vincent noticed Chrissie struggling with two men dressed in grey suits, with three of her fellow trainees collapsed on the floor around her. It looked as if they had gone to her assistance and Vincent had no idea if they were dead or just unconscious but he had no time now to check them. Looking behind him, he yelled to Zak and the others "assist Chrissie, get her in to G Squad" and continued on with Cloud.

The other four swung away and ran to Chrissie, Zak already realising that this must be happening because of Katherine. Darren and Troy were already firing, Zak and Kristian had their swords drawn and they were on top of Chrissie's attackers in seconds. The men let go of her and turned to face G Squad, but they were down immediately – they were now under attack by four of the mightiest warriors on the planet and were going nowhere. Zak grabbed hold of Chrissie's hand and started running with her to the G Squad building with Darren on her other side as Kristian and Troy cuffed her two attackers on the ground. Just then G Squad security guards arrived and hauled the men in grey to their feet, dragging them off to the G Squad holding cells – the grey men's involvement in the day's attacks was now over. Medical staff arrived and the three trainees who had assisted Chrissie were lifted on to stretchers and carried to the main medical facility, with four guards accompanying them. The rest of the guards followed Kristian and Troy who were also now headed after Vincent and Cloud.

Chaos was yelling at Vincent to move faster, his fury ripping through Vincent's body and mingling with his own. He and Cloud arrived at Katherine's rooms and burst in, preparing to launch in to attacks, but were greeted by an empty room with no sign of Katherine or her attackers. The room was in disarray with furniture thrown around and items smashed on the floor, Katherine had obviously fought back against whoever attacked her. Vincent heard some groans and running over to the table discovered Ms Black lying on the floor behind it. "I'm sorry Vincent" she gasped "there were 12 of them, I tried to keep them back until you could get here but they were just too strong". Vincent knelt next to her. "It's ok Ms Black, you did your best – we will find her. Just stay still and focus on your breathing, medical staff will be here soon". It was clear that the attackers had had no qualms about hitting Ms Black viciously she was covered in cuts and bruises and had bullet wounds on her shoulders and her stomach. She was bleeding heavily and Vincent realised she was severely injured. She had obviously managed to channel her limit break which had managed to shield a little, possibly enough to keep her alive so far.

Medical staff ran in and went to Ms Black immediately, starting to stabilise her so that she could be moved. "She is to be treated in G Squad" said Vincent and the medics nodded as they continued their work. Once she was able to be moved, they placed her on a stretcher and wheeled her back gently to the G Squad medical facility, with Vincent and Cloud walking behind her. Troy and Kristian were still in Katherine's quarters with some of the security guards looking for some evidence about the attackers, but they knew there would be none. A silence fell over the training facility to be replaced shortly after by the groans and cries from the wounded. The battle was obviously over and work began to rescue the injured and search for any of the attackers that would be held for questioning.

As Vincent and Cloud approached the G Squad building they could see that the grey men had attempted to attack it, however the G Squad security guards had over powered them and 10 men in grey suits were now huddled down on their knees, their arms cuffed behind them and weapons pointed at their heads. About 8 bodies were lying on the ground, all of them grey men. None of the security guards had been injured. The doors opened and G Squad medical staff met the emergency medics at the door. Ms Black was now in the safest hands and Vincent was hopeful that they would be able to save her. He and Cloud went up to the G Squad office – Sturge was standing there and looked at Vincent. Vincent just shook his head and walked across to where Chrissie was sitting on a couch with Zak, crying and calling for her sister. Zak looked up at Cloud who shook his head. Zak looked grim but continued to try and calm Chrissie down without telling her that her sister had disappeared. Vincent said nothing – while he was raging inside and also filled with worry about what had happened to Katherine, he knew he had to wait for Chrissie to calm down before they would be able to get any information from her.

Rebecca walked in to the main office. "Sir, the Empress is on her approach and will be landing in 22 minutes. She asked me to let you know that when word of the attack on the WRO reached her she sent one of her fleet to Cosmo Canyon and another to Corel. Both will be landing here within the hour. I understand that an escort has been sent to meet the Highwind and it will be landing here in about 40 minutes. Captain Highwind advises that your visitors will be arriving safely with him". Sturge nodded. He understood what the message from Yuffie meant – AVALANCHE was under way to G Squad. Looking at Vincent he now understood why – Yuffie obviously knew how Vincent felt about Katherine and AVALANCHE would be taking up arms to recover the woman that belonged to one of their members. That the member was Vincent and that it appeared he was finally beginning to move on with his life only to have this happen, Sturge knew AVALANCHE would be in full attack mode.

Rebecca looked over at Chrissie and noticed the way the men were stood helplessly around her. Walking to the water dispenser she poured a drink, gathered a large clutch of tissues and walked across to Chrissie, kneeling in front of her. "Chrissie, I know you are upset but your sister needs your help now". Chrissie cast her eyes on Rebecca. "The men need to be able to talk to you Chrissie and you need to calm down to allow them to do that. They need to help Katherine and they need your help to do that" she said calmly. She handed the tissues to Chrissie, who was now gulping large breaths of air and took the tissues and started wiping her face and trying to stop crying. "That's it, Chrissie, you are doing it well. Now drink this" Rebecca handed her the glass of water. Chrissie drank some of the water and then wiped her face again. Rebecca smiled at her gently "that's it Chrissie, well done. Are you able to let the men talk to you now?" she asked. Chrissie nodded. Rebecca stood up and walked back to one of the chairs near Chrissie and sat down in case they needed her assistance again.

Sturge walked in to his office and picked up his direct secure line to Reeve's office, the Commissioner answered immediately. "Ken, what news do you have?" asked Reeve. "I understand that attack was launched by approximately 70 armed men dressed in grey suits. At present no information as to their identity has been obtained. There are approximately 33 dead attackers, 26 captured and held for questioning and the remainder were able to escape under the cover of smoke bombs. 17 trainees have been injured the extent of their injuries has not yet been established. One Senior Staff has received serious gunshot wounds and is now in surgery. All remaining staff and trainees have been accounted for and teams have been set up to begin clearing up the damage to the facility".

Ken paused. "There is more, Reeve. It appears that the attacks were launched to provide cover for the abduction of Katherine de Ville, who was taken from her quarters by about 12 men. Ms Black was with her at the time and is now being treated for serious injuries in the G Squad medical centre. Katherine's foster sister Chrissie Buck was also attacked and three of her fellow trainees were injured when they went to her assistance. I believe they will make a full recovery but they were left unconscious. Chrissie was rescued by members of G Squad and her attackers are now in our holding cells under guard and awaiting questioning. Katherine's foster parents were already under way to Kalm when the attack occurred, being transported by the Highwind which is now also under escort by the WRO fleet".

"The Empress will be landing here in about – he glanced at his watch – 20 minutes and all members of AVALANCHE will be here within the hour". Reeve gasped at this news. "Why did they want Katherine de Ville?" he asked "and why would they risk attacking the WRO in order to reach her?". Sturge rubbed the back of his head. "I understand that it is in some way connected to the disappearance of her parents some years ago but at this stage I am not sure why, Reeve. Yuffie is bringing with her Chekov and Gorky as they are able to provide some information. They were already on their way when this attack happened. Yuffie had instructed that Katherine and her sister were both to be brought in to G Squad for protection and Vincent and Cloud were on their way to fetch them when the attack was launched. Once her parents and the rest of AVALANCHE are here we will be able to get the full story from Yuffie and her advisers and Katherine's foster parents. We will meet in the main G Squad room" he finished".

"I will be there in about 20 minutes Ken, once I have finished checking with the squad leaders on the extent of the injuries and damage" said Reeve. "I will see you then. Oh and Reeve there is an added complication to this situation". He paused again while Reeve waited expectantly. "It would appear that Vincent Valentine is in love with Katherine de Ville. He is – beyond anger, Reeve. I am sure you will understand now why AVALANCHE is on its way". He hung up the phone, knowing Reeve would know what he had meant – Vincent Valentine and Chaos would show no mercy to anyone that got in the way of them recovering Katherine.

Chrissie began her explanation to G Squad. "I met with Katherine for early breakfast this morning as she said she had some news for me. She told me that she had been appointed to stage 2 of her G Squad training and received promotion to Acting Lieutenant and that she would be moving her personal quarters over there too. She was so excited and so happy about it". Tears welled up in her eyes again but she managed to continue. "She also told me that Chaos had discovered she has some limit breaks and that Commander Valentine was going to be working with her to help her understand them and learn how to use them. I was terrified when she told me she knew about her limit breaks. My parents have known this moment would come for nearly 12 years and when Katherine came to the WRO they were so relieved, they thought she would be bound to be safe here".

Chrisse drank some more of her water. The members of G Squad were silent, waiting for her to continue. "Katherine suddenly realised that somehow I already knew about her limit breaks – the bell rang for class so I was able to try and make up some excuse without admitting I knew about them and I left for class, totally panicked. I texted my parents and told them she had made the discovery and that I had no idea what to do about it. They told me to stay calm and they would contact Katherine and talk to her and that they would also make arrangements to fly to Kalm on the first available flight they could get. I headed in to my first class but after it finished I had to go see Katherine again I couldn't bear the thought that she might be angry with me about her limit breaks".

She looked down a bit self consciously and continued "I knew that she had headed back to her quarters, I caught sight of her with Commander Valentine while I was texting our parents and I was sure she would still be there, so I decided to skip class and go and see her. I was almost there, when the sound of a huge explosion happened and then I could hear gun fire. I knew they were after Katherine, they must somehow have found out about the limit breaks, but I have no idea how since even I had only found out she knew an hour or so before. I screamed out for her and started running to her rooms when these two men in the grey suits ran up and caught hold of me. I struggled with them and three of the trainees noticed what was happening and came to help me".

The tears started flowing down her face again "the men hit them with these things they were carrying and they fell down to the ground – it was my fault, if only I had been honest with Katherine this morning and told her about the limit breaks she would have gone to G Squad and told Vincent, I know that she would have and none of this would have happened, but I did not know what to do and I was so scared when I found out she knew". Chrissie burst in to tears once more and Rebecca moved in again. "Well done Chrissie, well done, you have helped them a lot to understand why the attacks happened this morning. Your parents are on their way and will be here fairly soon – there is nothing more for you to do my dear, they will get things sorted out when they arrive" she said, putting her arm around Chrissie's shoulder and rocking her gently.

The men walked away leaving Rebecca to see to Chrissie. Vincent wondered if Chrissie was right – if she had told Katherine, would he have been the one that Katherine came to? Somehow he thought that she was right – Katherine trusted him, he knew. He closed his eyes tight and thought of Katherine – he hoped that she knew he would find her and would come for her. He was missing her already – and he knew in his heart that he was deeply in love with her – more than he had even loved Lucretia. Katherine was everything to him and without her he was nothing. Cloud placed his hand on Vincent's shoulder "we will find her, Vincent. We will find her" he said quietly. Vincent nodded and walked over to pour a coffee – he didn't want one but he needed to just do something, anything until her parents arrived and he could find out what was happening so that he knew where to go to find her.

The other members of G Squad seemed to be finally catching on to the situation between Katherine and Vincent and to say that Darren, Troy and Kristian were surprised was an understatement. While they liked Vincent and got on with him well, they had never known him show the remotest interest in any woman. Now it appeared that he was in love with a woman that he had known for under two weeks.

Vincent leaned against the wall and they could tell he was now in conversation with his demons. There seemed to be nothing else that they could do until everyone had arrived and they could begin to get to the bottom of what had happened.


	8. Chapter 8  G Squad is mobilised

8. **G Squad is mobilised**

Over the next 45 minutes everyone they had been waiting for, including Yuffie and her advisors, arrived. Yuffie's party was first, she walked in and hugged Vincent without saying a word to him and then went to talk to Chrissie and Rebecca while Chekov and Gorky stood with Reeve. Vincent wanted so desperately to get them to tell him what they knew, but he realised that they needed Katherine's parents here too and that it was better to wait for everyone to hear the entire story at once, since it was likely that each of them knew different bits that might build the overall picture.

Next to arrive were Katherine's parents, who walked in with Cid Highwind, his wife Shera and Tifa. Tifa and Shera also went straight up to Vincent and hugged him without saying a word and then went to stand with Cloud, he and Tifa talking quietly together. They were joined by Yuffie as Chrissie's parents went over to Chrissie. She fell in to the arms of her mother sobbing. Vincent was watching them and with his enhanced hearing he could hear what they said. Elizabeth Buck held her daughter and began talking to her while her father Edwin stood next to her, looking at her anxiously. "Oh mum this is all my fault, I just didn't know what to do when I realised Katherine knew about her limit breaks" she sobbed.

"But you did know what to do dear, you knew to contact your father and I immediately and you did. The only person who is at fault is the one that tried to harm you and took Katherine away. We were packing as soon as we heard from you as Katherine would not answer our calls, which we understood. We were about to leave to try and get on the first available flight when we were contacted by Cid Highwind and told he was on his way to fetch us. Nothing could have happened any faster, my dear – and no one could have thought that the one who has taken Katherine could move so fast. Even we had only just found out that Katherine knew about her limit breaks, dear. I know you are upset, we all are – but we have to focus now on giving them all the information that we can so that they can find Katherine and bring her home safely" concluded Elizabeth. Chrissie nodded and wiped her eyes, she was beginning to feel more confident now that her parents were here with information that could lead G Squad to Katherine.

They walked forward and Yuffie stepped up to greet them. "Mr and Mrs Buck, my name is Yuffie, I am a friend of Katherine's and Chrissie's" she said. Mrs Buck looked at her – "we know who you are Empress and we thank you for what you did today to try and protect our daughters. It seems that the links between your country and Katherine's parents continue". Yuffie nodded and started to lead them over to the seating area.

As they walked towards it, Elizabeth Buck looked at Vincent and stepped towards him. Vincent immediately unfolded his arms and straightened himself from the wall, looking at her intently. "Vincent, I have heard about you from my daughter Katherine. Thank you for the help that you have given her since she arrived here" she said. Vincent nodded "the help she needs now is for us to find her" he stated. Elizabeth nodded. "That is quite true, Vincent – but be sure that she knows that you will find her". "AVALANCHE and G Squad will do everything in our power to find her, I promise" said Vincent. "I know that Vincent, but that is not what I meant. Katherine knows that you will find her – she does not realise yet why she knows this, but she knows that Vincent will come for her. She has talked to me about you a lot since she met you". Elizabeth then moved off to join her husband who was being introduced to Sturge and Reeve and invited to sit. Vincent watched her as she moved away from him, his face expressionless but his chest burning. He was not entirely sure what Katherine's mother had meant but it seemed to him that she was indicating that Katherine had feelings towards him.

Both Nanaki and Barret arrived within the next 15 minutes and suddenly everyone was present. Vincent had resumed his leaning against the wall with his arms folded, his face hidden under the collar of his cloak again and his face expressionless. Nanaki and Barret nodded around the room as they came in and Nanaki walked over and sat next to Vincent, without speaking to him. He didn't need to – he and Vincent held a close friendship and Nanaki understood Vincent well. He knew that Vincent knew he was there for him and focused his eyes on Yuffie who had now stood up and walked to the front of the seating area to speak.

"Ok, we are now all here. Some of you know nothing at all about Katherine's parents so I will start by telling you about what I told Vincent three days ago. I met Katherine as we were walking through the courtyard and discovered her name was de Ville – she told me that her parents had worked in Wutai for the Army so I knew immediately who she was". She then proceeded to explain what she had already told Vincent. "Unfortunately, the day after I came back to Wutai we were involved in high level discussions with some visiting groups and so I did not get the opportunity to speak with Chekov and Gorky until this morning. As soon as they told me what they knew, I ordered the air fleet to be ready to leave in 10 minutes and contacted Ken and Vincent, telling them to bring Katherine and Chrissie in to G Squad immediately for protection and to have their parents flown here too as they were also at risk. 15 minutes later I received word of the attack on the WRO and therefore sent airships to fetch Nanaki and Barret knowing that the attack would in some way be linked to Katherine". She paused. "I think it probably best if Chekov takes up the story now and then the Bucks can join in when it reaches them".

Yuffie sat down and Chekov came to stand where she had been standing. "The night that Sephiroth and his SOLDIERS attacked Wutai was when Yuffie's mother, the Empress, lost her life defending both her daughter and Wutai. She was supposed to be meeting Jessica and Alexander de Ville but could not go when she heard SOLDIERS were attacking Wutai and so she sent Gorky and I to meet with them instead, secretly. We reached them at the appointed time and told them what was happening – they were so angry with old Shinra and also that they had left it too long before bringing the materia supplies to Wutai. They thought that they had been under watch all during the week before and had not dared to leave Junon where they were based, in case it led more danger to the Empress. Unfortunately they had been followed to Wutai the night they went. Sephiroth knew of their links with the Empress and he had been keeping watch on them for some time, unknown to them. It was him that they felt watching them the week before however he had been doing it for far longer it transpired".

Chekov looked sadly at Yuffie. "That night two young girls lost their mothers. Shortly after we met with the de Villes, the sound of SOLDIERS approaching reached us. We were able to lead them through some secret tunnels, however we could not bring the materia supplies and so the SOLDIERS found them, to Sephiroth's satisfaction. The de Villes knew that they were running out of time and so they begged us to try and help their 11 year old daughter Katherine, who was still in Junon and who they were scared old Shinra would harm in revenge for their work with the Empress. Jessica told us that their daughter had three limit breaks. Two magic spells named after her parents and one powerful and unique summons break that she had inherited from her mother, who was the only woman known to have it in existence. There was an ancient history of this summons break, it was channelled only by women and its roots lay back with the Cetra".

"Due to its links with the Cetra a scientist from old Shinra was desperate to gain access to it. He had already attempted to obtain it from her mother, but her mother was a warrior and a powerful one at that. When the scientist attempted to harm her and remove it from her, Jessica defended herself and injured the scientist badly and he was forced to flee Junon and hide. However, Jessica realised that he would recover and would try and extract it again. The summons break could be inherited by a daughter – that was how Jessica got it, she inherited it from her own mother. Jessica knew the scientist was aware of this and would no doubt try and obtain it from her daughter, if it was confirmed that she had it. Jessica and Alexander had therefore let the limit breaks lie dormant within their daughter and had no intention of revealing them to her until she was of an age and skill where she would be able to defend herself if she needed to. The night of the attack they realised that they were not going to be able to get away and therefore pleaded with us to locate their daughter in Junon and make sure she was kept safe from the scientist. We both gave them our word and then they told us to leave them as by now the SOLDIERS had discovered the tunnels we had used and were following us".

"Gorky and I took refuge in a hiding spot protected by Leviathan that the SOLDIERS were unable to find or access. Although we could not see the battle we heard it and we heard Jessica and Alexander's last words to each other before they were executed". He sighed. "There was no disappearance as the Junon Police had been led to believe afterwards. It was an execution and the de Villes did not escape. Their materia supply had already been captured and following their execution their weapons also vanished – no doubt stolen to be used by some of the SOLDIERS who found them. Their bodies were thrown in a deep pit in the caverns where we were – it was too deep for us to recover the bodies afterwards and their remains will still be there".

Elizabeth Buck had silent tears running down her face. Although she had heard this before from Chekov, her sorrow for her daughter Katherine ran deep. "After the attack on Wutai and the loss of the Empress we were, as you will know, under the control of old Shinra and Godo had seemingly lost all interest in trying to recover the country. He could not believe that Shinra would in fact have harmed his beloved wife like that and he realised that he had betrayed her with his fear of Shinra. Although he recovered somewhat later on, for a long time he was focused only on the loss of his wife. We were kept busy trying to help rebuild the damage that had been sustained following the battle and trying to organise a system of governing until Godo was strong enough to take over again. We were also refused permission from Shinra to leave Wutai. It was therefore 12 months before we were able to try and seek out the de Ville's daughter and we were convinced that she would have been taken by Shinra in that time and that we had failed in our promise to the de Villes".

"We went to Junon quietly, keeping a low presence and were actually successful in not being discovered in the city. Some of our ninjas made enquiries for us, in disguise naturally and we found that the de Villes had in fact been fortunate. The night they went to Wutai, their daughter was on a sleep over at the house of one of her friends, another 11 year old girl who was the daughter of a senior staff member at Shinra. It would appear that one of the few people in Junon who actually knew what had happened to the de Villes the previous night went to that family's house. Whilst no one would have supported the de Villes in what they chose to do, it seems that they had many influential and quite powerful friends who were not going to stand back and allow their daughter to be harmed. They therefore came up with a story that the de Villes had mysteriously disappeared and lodged a missing persons report with the Police, who launched a formal investigation. The friends also made sure that the disappearance and lonely, left behind child were public knowledge".

"While the former President of Shinra would not have cared about killing an 11 year old child, he was a politician and realised that there was no point in causing unnecessary unpleasantness over the child. He therefore ignored it. Katherine stayed with various family friends until her existence was more or less forgotten by the former President and then they made the process to find her a decent foster home. While any number of people would have had her stay with them, they felt that to do that posed too much of a risk for Shinra to remember her and may be decide to use her for something. By dropping her in to the foster care system it was unlikely that Shinra would bother to try and search for her. She was therefore homed with the Bucks".

"Gorky and I then had to come to a decision. The child was still at risk from the scientist that was after the summons break. If Shinra knew she had it, she would be protected from him but would no doubt be exposed to even more risks directly from Shinra's science department. We had no choice but to place our trust in her foster parents – it was a huge risk, but we decided that if we did not approach them the chances of Katherine being taken from them by someone at some point in the future, whether Shinra or the scientist, outweighed the risk of the foster parents running to Shinra themselves. We managed to arrange a meeting with them. We decided that being completely honest with them was the only way we could gain their trust and their help. We therefore told them who we were, who Katherine's parents were and what had happened to them and the risk she was at from Shinra".

"They were horrified to think that Shinra might actually attempt to harm a child and gave us their word that they would do whatever they could to protect her. We then explained to them about her limit breaks and the fact that a scientist would try and find her and that if he was successful, it was most likely she would die as a result of what he would end up doing to her. The Bucks remained adamant that they would do all in their power to protect the child. We left them with the means to contact us and we have remained in regular contact with them ever since, although Katherine has no knowledge of this and still has no awareness of what happened to her parents that night. She was of the belief that they had disappeared, most likely having been killed by some monsters during some research trip and after they had been unheard of for 7 years they were legally declared dead".

The room was silent after Chekov had finished speaking. The events surrounding the death of the Empress at Sephiroth's hands were known to them all but none of them had known about Katherine's parents apart from the Bucks and to a very limited extent Yuffie. Not even Chrissie had known this part of the story. Chekov sighed and looked at the Bucks. "I think that the rest of the story is yours" he said simply and sat down. The Bucks nodded and both rose to their feet.

"When Chekov and Gorky came to see us, we struggled to understand and believe what we were hearing. Although we knew bad things associated with Shinra we were simply ordinary people engaged in a normal life, working and raising a daughter and more recently, a foster daughter. Suddenly we were confronted by advisors to Lord Godo and heard of the murder of the Empress and the execution of the parents of the child we were caring for. It was the day our eyes were opened to what Shinra really was" stated Edwin Buck. "While we may not have been the bravest or strongest people on the planet, there was no way in hell that we were going to allow Katherine to be taken from us and harmed without us doing everything in our power to prevent it. When Chekov went on to tell us about the limit breaks, we were even more determined".

"We had heard of them although we were not really familiar with them and neither had we heard of Cetra back then either. We did start to research everything about it though, as we felt that the more we knew the greater our chances of protecting Katherine. We agreed with Chekov and Gorky that probably the best thing we could do to help Katherine was to continue to try and keep her limit breaks dormant, as her parents had done. From the research we were able to do – bearing in mind we had to do this without attracting attention so it took us some time and we were too worried to make the research too detailed – we understood that the trigger for channelling limit breaks was the extreme situation. It therefore seemed to us that one of the most effective ways of preventing this was to keep Katherine in a life style that she would be unlikely to experience it in and to try and teach her strong self control over her emotions and her feelings."

"Katherine may come across as warm and friendly, but be aware that she can also be completely ruthless and cold when the situation requires it of her – in a way that Chrissie could never manage. This was in part due to the training we acquired for her but also, we think, in part to her inheritance from her parents. We believe that she is a lot like them although we never met them and Cheko and Gorky have never met her, so we have had no one to make the comparison to us".

"When Katherine was about 14, we received a visit from a man who claimed to be an old family friend of Katherine's parents and wanted to meet her. We were immediately suspicious of this since none of her parent's friends had been advised by the foster care system who or where her foster parents were. Eventually the visitor made some reference to limit breaks. I have to say that Elizabeth is responsible for having provided him with a response that sent him away at the time. She told him that she had heard the authorities make some reference to that before, something that was linked to Katherine's parents but she was not sure what. She was able to tell him that Katherine had been subject to some thorough testing on her health and the results had shown that she was a completely normal, healthy girl. The visitor then said that he was glad to hear it, but that it was possible that some of the problems could emerge later in life and he was sure we would understand his desire to remain in touch with us. Elizabeth agreed and told him if he would like to call her every few months she would of course let him know if any changes occurred that we thought he should come and look at. She then got rid of him before the girls came home so that he did not actually meet Katherine that day".

Elizabeth then took up the story. "He told me that his name was John Brown – as if anyone would ever believe that. He made contact with me every three months up until her 18th birthday and then after that only very rarely. We think the reason for that is that from our research most young women would be in control of their summons breaks by the age of 16 and definitely by the age of 18. He therefore probably assumed that she had not in fact inherited the break. Our research shows that it is not always the eldest daughter that inherits the break and it has in fact skipped some generations quite broadly. We think that he came to the conclusion that the break had skipped her, but that it might appear in her daughter one day so he decided not to do anything to her that might prevent this from happening. Plus the fact that when I made up the story of this testing she had been through he was obviously given the impression that Shinra was still involved with her, so he knew that he had to be careful. Otherwise I am sure he would simply have taken her and kept her under watch until she was 18 and then most likely he would have had her impregnated so that he could see if her child inherited it. He might even have simply raped her himself".

Vincent's blood ran cold when Elizabeth said this. The thought of someone taking his beloved Katherine and raping her to sire a child on her was horrifying. He would then have run more tests on her daughter in the hope of extracting a summons break from her and no doubt then killed both Katherine and her daughter after with no hesitation.

"Once Shinra came down and the world began again after the death of Omega and Meteor, he could have taken her again then, but we made it harder for him to access her I think. She commenced her own warrior training and if he had managed to see her, he would have known that she was highly skilled and the chances of him succeeding were somewhat reduced. Far better for him to then wait until she had a daughter of her own when memories of the breaks etc would be far in everyone's memory and it would have been a lot easier for him to simply slip away with a baby. When Chrissie was 15, we did tell her about the limit breaks and taught her how to be careful around Katherine and to also make sure she told us if ever she thought that they were being followed. She understood the risks to Katherine and was quite happy to be helping us watch over her. When the girls headed to the WRO we actually thought that the risk to Katherine must be reduced considerably. I can't believe how stupid we were, even to the point of allowing her to fail to disclose her limit breaks on her application form as a means of added protection for her in case anyone managed to gain access to the form to see if we had been telling the truth about them or not".

Elizabeth and Edwin looked at each other. "I think that is all we can tell you. There is no doubt in our minds that the one that has taken Katherine today is the same one that came to us first when she was 14. But his only reason for so doing would be because he knew she had found out about her limit breaks and since only herself and G Squad knew, we have no idea why he took her today" concluded Edwin. The two of them then went and sat next to Chrissie again. Silence filled the room. "How could they have known?" asked Reeve.

This question was puzzling both Vincent and Chaos as well as others in the room. "Let us just run over the series of events again" said Sturge. "The breaks were first mentioned between Vincent and Chaos – and since their conversations take place within Vincent's mind, no one could have overheard them even if they had managed to access sound in his room somehow. Vincent then came to me in my office and told me. The only ones present therefore on the whole floor were G Squad and my secretary, Rebecca in the room next door to me". Rebecca nodded, she understood Sturge was working things through, not attempting to blame it on her. "The next discussion was with Vincent, Zak, Cloud, myself and Ms Black in my office. Ms Black would be the only one who was not a member of G Squad. The next discussion was between Vincent and Katherine in his unit – I refuse to believe anyone would have been able to achieve access to conversations in G Squad personal quarters. Then the last conversation was between Chrissie and Katherine at around 6.40am this morning, which ended when the 7.15am bell rang. The text message between Chrissie and her parents was about 10 minutes later but even if it had been intercepted, there is no way they could have organised an attack like that just over an hour later" summarised Sturge.

"When did Katherine first announce her desire to join the WRO?" asked Vincent. "Both the girls made their decision about 4 years ago" replied Elizabeth. "And how long has Ms Black been here?" he asked. Reeve looked at him "3 years". It was obvious, she had been sent here then to establish herself within the hierarchy of the training facility, a job that she had performed well. She was the first choice to Sturge when he decided it was suitable to have a female member of staff present during the conversation with Katherine. "I would imagine that she contacted her scientist when she left the meeting around 4pm, to let him know that the summons break had been confirmed within Katherine and that he needed to get to her fast. Once she was within the G Squad facility it would have been near impossible for her to have been abducted, especially as she would have been with Vincent most of the time" said Sturge. "And I further assisted her this morning by asking her to come to Katherine, so that she was able to provide her exact location to the abductors and even ensure that the two of them were there alone" concluded Vincent.

Cloud looked up. "And once she had done that, they had no further use for her, which was why she was viciously attacked this morning and is lucky to still be alive" he said. "Where is she now?" asked Yuffie. "Under guard in the G Squad medical centre" replied Sturge bitterly. Without a word both Yuffie and Tifa got up and left the room. Vincent made as if to follow them, but Nanaki spoke for the first time. "Leave it to them, Vincent. They will find out his name for us".

Elizabeth looked up. "The only thing that I can tell you about him is that I am sure he did once work for old Shinra because of something he once said and that I believe his nickname is Gastbury" she said. "Host, what does that name convey to you?" asked Chaos. "Nothing Chaos, I have never heard of it before" said Vincent. "You are not thinking outside of the square, Host. There are two words in there if you think about it. Gast and Bury. Who wanted Professor Gast dead?" said Chaos. Realisation suddenly hit Vincent. "His nephew Arnon Davies, who Professor Gast made sure lost his job following the way he doctored some scientific reports as a means to gaining access to working under Hojo as a trainee when he was about 25" replied Vincent. "Exactly" said Chaos. "And what did Davies do that ended up impressing Hojo, even though Gast lost him his job in the end?" "He created a mako related substance that enhanced his life span by 50 years" said Vincent, suddenly realising what Chaos was getting at. Davies was still young enough to be able to abduct Katherine and carry out the work he had been attempting to do for so many years, even though he would only have started to have access to the summons break when he learned of Katherine in foster care 10 years ago.

"I know who the scientist is" stated Vincent out loud. Everyone looked at him. "His name is Arnon Davies and he is the nephew of the late Professor Gast. He has increased his life span by 50 years and is quite able to do what the Bucks have been describing to us" said Vincent. Zak spun around on his chair and hit his computer, calling up Arnon Davies within seconds. "We have him" said Zak. "Where is he located?" asked Sturge. "No records of his location, damn" said Zak. "25 miles NE of Gongoga in a laboratory created within some caverns that have never been located on any map" said Tifa suddenly, returning in to the room with Yuffie. Cid grabbed his phone "get the Highwind fired up, we will be leaving as soon as AVALANCHE and G Squad are on board" he stated and ended the call. "We got the bastard, Vincent – we'll have her back very soon now" Cid stated.

The room suddenly burst in to energy as G Squad and members of AVALANCHE grabbed their weapons and supplies from the store cupboards and started heading out, with Vincent flying ahead of them towards the Highwind. He was going to get Katherine and he was going to kill Arnon Davies, with no question.

Sturge was already on his phone getting the backup squads in place. The air fleet was notified and the fleet would be ready to go in the air within 15 minutes and the Turks were also preparing to head to Gongoga.


	9. Chapter 9  Rescue in Gongoga

9. **Rescue in Gongoga**

Katherine groaned as she came to, her shoulders were aching and her arms felt like lead. Her head was aching too and her throat was dry. As her vision began to clear and her mind came back to the present, Katherine realised she was chained by her wrists and hanging from the wall in some kind of cavern based laboratory. She groaned again as she moved her feet to take her weight and looked around. A face came in to view, a man leaning against a large examination table and smiling at her. "Welcome back Katherine" he said "this is a momentous occasion for us, meeting here in the presence of your lovely summons break". "Who are you, why am I here?" she asked. "Tut tut, that's not very welcoming of you Katherine" he smirked.

Straightening himself up, he walked across to stand closely in front of her, looking in to her face. "My name is Arnon and the two of us are going to be such friends" he chuckled. "What do you want with me" asked Katherine. "Oooh so much, Katherine, so much – far more than I wanted when you were just a child" he replied. Katherine had no idea who he was or how he even knew her name. His face and his name were not familiar to her in any way. "Your most important gift for us is of course your summons break. I can't tell you how delightful it is of you to have left it lying dormant for me, a virginal break for my use" he cooed. "But of course that is not all that you will enjoy with me while you are here. I have one or two other special little things to test on you – you are so going to love them. And not to mention our personal time together, Katherine – that is going to be just divine" he lent his head in closer to her face and ran his tongue up the side of her face. Katherine threw her head to the side "get off me you revolting jerk!" she yelled at him.

Arnon raised his hand and slapped her hard across her face. He lent in close to her again "you would do well to remember that you are chained up, my dear. You cannot defend yourself and you will do what I want you to do, when I want you to do it" he stated. "Hmmm your eyes remind me so much of your mother, my dear" he started cooing at her again "and so do your magnificent breasts". He ran his hands down from her shoulders, on to her breasts, rubbing them and caressing her through her leather. "So beautiful, so shapely – and so much mine now" he stated. Katherine was trying to throw his hands off her, but he just laughed in her face. "You will do as I tell you Katherine – you cannot refuse my attentions. Not that you would want to anyway, would you?" he asked in a soft, higher pitched tone as once again he ran his hands over her breasts, massaging them and cupping him in his hands. He continued to do this for a few minutes while Katherine struggled against him, but she could do nothing while chained against the wall. "Now now my dear, don't be naughty or else I will have to punish your sister for you" he stated. Katherine froze – "you're lying, you don't have her here" she said. He smirked at her "you just carry on believing that and being naughty – I really do enjoy punishing girls with beautiful blonde hair like your sister".

He stepped back and looked at her – she had no idea if he was lying or not but the thought of him having captured her sister as well terrified her. She kept her fear for her sister buried and spoke again "and what of Ms Black, what have you done with her?" Davies laughed again. "Are you really anxious about Ms Black, Katherine? Even though she rang me yesterday afternoon to tell me that she'd just had a meeting with you and some members of G Squad to talk about your limit breaks?". "You're lying again, Ms Black would not have done that" she said, but even as she said it she realised it was true – how else would he possibly have known? She knew that no member of G Squad would have discussed it with him or anyone else. "Look on the bright side Katherine, at least she's dead now" he said "since she had of course served her purpose for me. Three years she had been there Katherine, three years building her position and gaining people's trust, all ready for when you arrived at the WRO". He snickered at her, obviously aware of her shock at what he had just said.

"But enough of that for now – I need to get you prepared and I can't do it when you are awake so night night for now, I'll see you again soon" he said and with that cast a sleep materia on her. As her head fell to her chest as sleep hit her, Davies grinned and walked over to her, releasing her chains and pulling her over his shoulder to take her over to the examination table. When he got her there, he sat her on the edge of it with her head over his shoulder. "That's it baby, just relax against me" he cooed. He then undid her leather uniform top and pulled it down her arms and off her back, tossing it to one side. Then he lay her down on the table and clasped the strong leather straps around her wrists. Next he undid her leather pants and struggled those down her hips to her ankles, stopping while he removed her leather boots and then pulled her pants off. He then strapped her ankles in to the straps as well and Katherine was left lying there in the tee shirt and tight fitting shorts that she wore under her uniform.

Davies walked over to his computer and started making some notes on her record that was on the display screen. He glanced up as the door opened and a woman dressed in a white laboratory coat came in. She walked across to Katherine and stood looking at her. "So, she's finally here" she said. "Indeed she is my dear, this is a joyous occasion. I'll be able to start some of my testing soon – it has been so long in the planning that I have a couple of new things ready to try on her".

The woman looked over to him. "New things? What might they be" she asked thoughtfully. "I have a present for you Patti – one that you will very much enjoy I think. It just needs testing on someone and since our lovely Katherine is now here, she has scored the lucky prize. Remember I told you that I was working to enhance the life expectancy mako treatment that I developed before and that we have both enjoyed? I have an even better one now. Once I have run it through Katherine's body two or three times to test its side effects, it will be ready for us to try it".

"The mako immortality treatment" breathed Patti in understanding. "Exactly, my dear. I believe it is now ready for us to take, having been testing it along the way on some animals and human samples that the guards fetched for me. Katherine will be my final test case. Provided there is no adverse effect on her over the next week, we will be able to take the treatment then. "Is it wise to make her immortal, Arnon?". "Ah, you are worried about how we will dispose of her afterwards. Don't worry, Patti – immortality means that your age will freeze at the time you take the treatment and you will not die from ill health or natural causes" he smiled "but a bullet in her temple will kill her effectively, never fear".

"And what is the other new test you have to try on her?" asked Patti. Arnon smirked. "That is one that is designed for only my little pleasure really, a new aphrodisiac. I intend trying it out on her tonight and seeing how well it makes her perform". Patti looked up. "Tonight? Is that wise? I thought you wanted to extract the summons break while it was dormant – if you use an aphrodisiac on her for a sex session you might run the risk of making her reach her level of extreme – in which case it will make the extraction process more difficult, not to mention the danger of her channelling her break". Arnon looked at her – she was right. However much he was looking forward to fucking such an incredibly attractive woman, he was not prepared to put at risk the experiment that had been in the planning for so many years. "You are of course right, my dear. It will have to wait until after the extraction process is complete. A pity really, since she may die following it, but I can't risk it failing after waiting for the opportunity for so many years. At least if only her brain is affected I will still be able to try it out afterwards" he chuckled evily.

"Now, I think we had better get underway with the mako substance treatment. I want to inject three treatments in to her over the next few days just to ensure we will discover if any adverse effects to its application might occur. While I know the treatment will work, I don't know if this new supply will have any effect on her veins or body when it is injected and working its way around her body. I do know it is unable to affect her break though so I can continue with the extraction at any time". Davies walked across to the experiment area and began to put together the treatment and insert it in to a large needle. Picking it up he walked over to Katherine and wiped her arm with a sterilisation wipe and then inserted the needle. "There, all done. I think we will just leave her lying here and linked up to the monitor to track her vital signs. If there is a problem, I will commence the extraction immediately. If it is ok, I'll insert another two treatments over the next couple of days and then after that I'll do the extraction. If she survives that in a usable form, I'll then try my aphrodisiac on her" he said laughing. "I might even let the guards have a go with it just before they dispose of her – that would be a nice treat for them after the assault on the WRO" he said.

He and Patti then set up the monitors, he completed his notes on the computer and then they walked out of the laboratory, leaving a dim light on. Katherine was likely to remain asleep for up to another 2 hours and then he would return and check on her again. Patti wandered in to the kitchen to make a snack. While she thought that Davies was becoming increasingly insane, it did not really bother her. As long as he continued to allow her to share the benefits of his test results – the 50 year mako substance was one of his finest so far – and allowed her use of the facilities, she really did not care what else he did. They had been partners now for well over 30 years, both having been removed from Shinra instead of being allowed to remain under Professor Hojo. They even enjoyed sex together sometimes, but since Patti also had about 60 guards to choose from whenever she felt like it, she was not bothered by the fact that he wanted to fuck Katherine. She might even enjoy watching it so that she could witness the effects of his new aphrodisiac she mused. Speaking of which, she rather fancied that guard that she had tried out for the first time last week – she had a couple of hours to kill while they waited for Katherine to wake up.

Sometime later the Highwind was approaching the direction of Gongoga with its arrival estimated in 35 minutes. Tension was high on board. AVALANCHE and G Squad wanted to rescue Katherine unharmed but AVALANCHE was also very concerned for Vincent. They could easily remember the first few years with him as he mourned for Lucretia and atoned for what he considered to be his sins. The last three years had seen huge changes in him, especially the last 12 months. While he was still most likely to spend his time on his own outside of his G Squad duties, mainly sitting in his room reading, talking with his demons and thinking, he was so very different. It was as if he himself had suddenly realised that he did have the right for a future and his future could be anything that he wanted. Vincent was still immortal – that was something that was not going to change and he was still coming to terms with the fact that his friends would age and eventually pass on leaving him behind. But at least he was now recognising that situation need not restrict him in his friendships and relationships. Since he met Katherine a short time ago he had obviously fallen in love for the first time since he had met Lucretia and according to Yuffie, Chaos would be supporting him in this. They were aware that Chaos and the other demons hated Lucretia referring to her as a bitch even when talking to Vincent.

They wondered what would happen to Vincent if something bad happened to Katherine or if she was killed. In their hearts they knew the most likely outcome was that Vincent would disappear, finding somewhere to fall back in to his sleep and it would be unlikely that they would be able to rouse him from it again.

Vincent had not said a word to anyone since he boarded the Highwind. He was leaning against the wall on the flight deck in the shadows, his arms crossed and his head bent down. Occasionally Chaos would ask him something or make some comment, but most of the time his mind was silent. The WRO airfleet was about 10 minutes behind them and Reno's helicopter would get there slightly after the Highwind, having had to detour to pick up some emergency medics to accompany them with a view to Katherine being returned on the chopper, as it would make faster time than the Highwind.

Cloud was bent over a map of the area again, measuring the distances. Although Ms Black had given Yuffie and Tifa the location – she wanted revenge, she had been loyal to Davies and had not expected him to order her disposal when they went after Katherine – the accuracy of it worried him somewhat together with the fact that they still had to find the entrance, even if they landed in the correct area. If they were sighted approaching or landing and they took too long to find the entrance, Katherine might have had her break extracted or been disposed of as a direct result. Tifa came over and put her arms around him and rested her head on his back. She knew what he was worried about and that he still carried the burden of responsibility back from their AVALANCHE battles. Even though technically they were all now members of G Squad and Director Sturge was in charge, they knew it would be Cloud that would lead the assault and make the decisions that could have a brutal outcome for Katherine. Since it was still daylight outside they would be unable to go in under the cover of darkness – if they decided to wait until darkness fell in about two hours, they ran the risk of experiments proceeding against Katherine in the meantime. Not to mention that there was no way that Vincent would wait once he had arrived in the area.

Cloud turned slightly and pulled Tifa to his chest and wrapped an arm around her. "How are you going, Cloud?" she asked him. Cloud sighed. "If we only had the exact location of the entrance it would be fine, we can be in there within minutes. But trying to find it could take us some time depending on how accurate the location Ms Black gave us is" he explained. There had to be some way they could find it accurately without increasing risk against Katherine. Suddenly he found the answer.

"Vincent" he said looking at him. Vincent raised his head and looked at him but did not say anything. "We need Galian Beast" said Cloud. Vincent frowned and walked across to the map to see what Cloud was looking at. The sun was shining on it and Vincent realised at a glance what Cloud's concerns were and why he wanted Galian Beast. It was summer in the area and darkness would not fall until later in the night in this location. Vincent nodded. Pointing to a part on the map he said "land here and wait until Galian has found the entrance. This hill should keep the Highwind from view and be close enough for you to all reach the attack site without causing delays". "Agreed" said Cloud. "Vincent – I need your undertaking that you will not enter the cavern until you have made us aware of the location". Vincent looked up at him.

"I know you want to enter it Vincent, but you have to consider Katherine. Going in on your own while we struggle to find you may have the worse outcome for her and you will end up regretting it". Vincent looked down at the map again. He knew that Cloud was right but he just wanted to go in and rip apart everyone that he encountered on his way to Katherine. "Vincent, even if you were able to kill every guard in there by yourself, by the time you got to where Katherine is located they will have had time to extract her break or kill her. If they have a hidden exit, they might even be able to get away after having done it. At least if we all enter together, you can focus on finding Katherine while we take out the guards and make the cavern safe" said Cloud. "He is right, Host" said Chaos "and you can trust Galian to find the entrance for you quickly".

Vincent sighed and looked at Cloud. "Very well, once Galian has found the entrance I will transform back and send you the location signal". He paused again coming to terms with what he had to do. "I will wait there for you to arrive before I enter the cavern". "Thank you Vincent" said Cloud, clapping him on the shoulder. "We will be at our landing site in 20 minutes" Vincent nodded and went to resume his position against the wall while Cloud went to talk to Cid. Shortly after Cid was on the ship's communications systems, making sure that Reno and the airfleet knew the landing location.

Back in the cavern, Katherine had woken up and was attempting to extract her wrist from the leather strap with no success. She lay back and closed her eyes. "Vincent" she thought, "I am here Vincent". How she wished she knew where he was right now. Although she knew that Vincent would be looking for her, she had no idea how he was going to be able to find her. She thought of his red, emotional eyes, his beautifully shaped lips and his finely chiselled features. His strong and muscular chest and arms and the incredible shape of his toned thighs. And most of all she thought of his kindness, his consideration and her knowledge that he was quite simply the most wonderful man that she had ever met in her life.

Just then the door opened and Davies walked back in to the room. "Ah our little sunshine is awake" he said. He walked over to the monitor and checked the readings, seeming to be pleased with what they told him. "Well, well it would appear that your immortality has had no application side effects so far" he said grinning at her. "My – immortality?" asked Katherine in a shocked hushed voice. "Yes, yes. Although I will be inserting a couple more of the treatments, they are not necessary to create the immortality in you. Only one application is necessary for that, the other two are simply to give me more reassurance that the treatment will not burn our veins up when we have it in a few days" Davies explained.

"You are in fact the first person to ever have this particular supply of the treatment – you are making history, Katherine" said Davies. A look of horror crossed her face and she started to struggle against her straps again. "Now, now my dear if you do that I will simply cast you asleep again and then you will miss out on all the wonderful things we are going to be doing with you" he stated again. Despite Patti's warning, he could not help himself from running his hands over her breasts again – they really were so delightful, he could not wait to have her naked beneath him, enthused by the aphrodisiac and moaning in ecstasy as he did all sorts of things to her. Katherine realised that she was going to have to find a way to escape from the table.

Davies finished on her breasts, checked the monitor again and then walked to the door. "Have a nice sleep, Katherine, I'll be seeing you in the morning" he said, flicking the lights down low and walking out of the door. Katherine took some deep breaths, slowing her breathing down as she allowed her detached feelings to take over. Looking around the room, she took in the details of what was in there. There were two doors on the side wall – one she knew was a bathroom as it was slightly ajar and she could just catch a glimpse of a shower curtain. The other she deduced was a store room. Up on the ceiling, there was an air vent, held up by a few screws. On the tables were some medical tools and dressings. She heard some footsteps walking down the corridor and the face of a guard looked in. This could be her chance. She turned her head towards the door and smiled over, with a sexy look in her face, and waved her hand in the strap at the door. The guard stood there for a few minutes, looked up and down the corridor and then opened the door and walked in.

"Hi" breathed Katherine "are you one of the visitors the Professor said I would be getting?". The guard walked over. "Visitors?" he asked. "Mmm yes, I've been promised some visitors for being such a good girl and taking my potion" she said, making her eyes at him. The guard was not sure what was going on, but he had heard the Professor talking about his aphrodisiac and the guards had often been given some of the test specimens he'd finished with to use before they had to dispose of them. May be this was another one. "So you'd like me to spend some time with you?" he asked coming closer to the table. "I could show you the new trick that the Professor taught me tonight" she cooed, licking her lips with her tongue. "He was pleased, but I need a little more practice – may be you could help me and I can show you what I can do" she breathed. "May be I can" he said, reaching his hands out and touching her breasts. She let out a little moan. "Oh you have nice hands" she said "I have nice hands too – I only need to use one for my new trick – with my mouth of course" she panted at him. "I can't untie you" he said straight away. "Of course you can't silly – that would ruin my trick. I just need one free so that I can hold you in place properly – like the Professor showed me. I love the way the other straps rub against me when I use that one hand – that potion the Professor gave me was soo good" she smiled at him from under her lowered lids and wriggled her hips at him.

The guard was by now turned on – it was not often they got to fuck a woman down in the cavern and freeing one of her hands would not cause a problem since the rest of her would still be tied down. He reached out to the strap on one of her wrists "oh baby, this is going to be soo good" she moaned at him. He undid the strap and stepped back a little as she rolled part of her body over towards him. "That's it baby – now I can undo you" she enticed, making him step forward again, so that she could reach the front of his pants. "How about a kiss, baby" she said licking her lips again and peeping up at him from under her lashes. The guard leaned over her, putting his arms out to go around her body. She ran her hand up his thigh, up to his chest as his lips met hers – and she plunged her fingers in to the point in his neck that she had been reaching for. The guard collapsed down by the side of the table without making a sound. Quickly Katherine reached over and untied the strap on her other wrist and then her ankles. Hopping off the bed, she opened the bathroom door and dragged the guard over and then pushed him up and in to the bath, where he lay out of sight hidden by the shower curtain. He was out cold and would be out for at least two hours.

Katherine took his gun and his spare clip from his belt and then after a thought pulled the belt off and tied it around her waist. It was too big to use the buckle but she managed to fix it so that it would stay in place and slid the gun and the ammunition clip on but threw the other items off. Next she walked back in to the laboratory and crossed to the equipment table. She tucked a couple of sharp scalpels in to the belt and then took a thicker, strong blade. Crossing back to the table, she pushed it slightly so that it was under the air vent and then reached up to unscrew the cover.

Her mind was running over everything – she needed to be quick but she needed to be thorough so that they would not see the way she had exited the room by. She pushed the cover up in to the air vent and tucked the blade in to her belt, then moved the table back to where it was originally. She had needed it close to be able to undo the screws, but she would be able to jump up from there and her hands reach the opening of the air vent. Crouching down slightly she gathered her strength and then leapt up, grasping the edge of the cover and pulling herself up inside of it. It was hard work but she was not going to fail in this – failing meant having to go back down in to the laboratory. Once she was up, she rested for a short moment and then turned to put the cover back in to place. It had slats across it, fairly narrow ones but she could just reach through with her hand. She would not be able to tighten the screws up completely, but she could do them enough to hold it in place – as long as they did not look at the vent too closely it would look as if it was shut.

Katherine then began moving quietly through the shaft, glancing down as she passed other vent openings to try and gage whereabouts she was. One of the problems she had was that she had no idea what time it was. She had been knocked out when taken from the WRO and had no idea how long she was unconscious for. She doubted it was the next day yet, but she couldn't tell whether it was still late afternoon or evening or the middle of the night. The Professor had left her to sleep, but that may have been because he had other things to do and leaving her in the dark may have been one of his methods to subdue her and make her more frightened.

As she approached another air vent she could hear groans and gasps coming up. Sliding down on to her belly she carefully moved in to position so that she could get a look in to the room below her. She could clearly see a bed with two naked people in it, engaged in an active sex session. Next to the bed was some grey clothing which she assumed was the same as the uniforms she had seen her attackers wear and the guard that came in to the laboratory. Next to it was a white laboratory coat and a skirt – ok, so the guard would be the male and the woman would be someone who worked in the laboratory.

There was a digital clock on top of the bedside table the time said it was 7.10pm. Good, so now she knew that it was evening. Moving to the side of the shaft Katherine carefully moved on past the vent and continued down the shaft. Then it dawned on her – although the clock read it was evening, she had no idea if she had passed in to another time zone. Even if the journey had only been two hours, depending on which direction they had headed in, she could have ended up in a time zone that was even 4 hours ahead or behind of Kalm. Damn, so she still had no idea whether it might still be daylight outside, depending on the hours of daylight in the place she was now in.

Moving on down the shaft, Katherine was thinking of what to do next. Once they had discovered she was missing from the laboratory, they would of course immediately begin searching for her. While they would first search down on the ground, it would only be a matter of time before they brought the search up to the shaft and once they worked out whereabouts she was in it, they would have her down fast – a tranquiliser would put her out of action. It therefore made sense to her to find somewhere down on the ground that she could hide in while she worked out her escape route. May be a storage cupboard would be a good place if she could find one with a vent or – may be a sleeping room! Her mind started to race through the options again. If she could find one that had someone in it, once the alarm was raised they would exit from the room immediately. She could then remove the vent cover and take refuge in the room until she had thought of her next plan, since the sleeping quarters would be the last area they would begin to search, knowing that they had been occupied by guards during her escape.

Katherine kept on moving around – she thought that she was in the sleeping area now, but not all the rooms had an air vent evidently. Eventually she found one and looked down – a guard was sitting on a couch watching TV, he had his uniform pants on but his shirt was on the couch next to him with his jacket. Ok so he was off duty at the moment and so had been in the room for a while from the looks of it. It was likely then that it would be some time before they decided to check for her in there. Satisfied with her choice, she lay back against the wall of the shaft to wait.

The Highwind came in to land on the other side of a hill from the location of the cavern entrance. Unless Davies had patrols on this side of the hill, they would not be seen. Vincent doubted that Davies would be expecting them to find the caverns – as far as Davies knew they had no idea who he was and Ms Black, the only one who could give them any idea, was dead. As he walked to the entrance, Cloud came up to him. "Good luck Vincent, we'll see you shortly" he said. Vincent nodded and walked down the ramp. He could see Reno's chopper approaching in the distance and the rest of the air fleet would be shortly behind him.

"Galian" he said "I need your help. We need to find the entrance of the cavern so that we can rescue Katherine". He felt Galian begin to rise up and allowed him to have full control. Seconds later, the Galian Beast stood outside of the Highwind, his head up sniffing the breeze. He could detect the smell of humans from over the hill. Galian set off, his legs running fast over the ground and up the side of the hill. "Galian, slower" he heard Vincent inside him "you must not be seen". Vincent was aware that this was a rather different situation for Galian – usually he transformed so that he could kill and had no thoughts about who could see him, it was of no consequence to him.

As he approached the brow of the hill he flattened to the ground, moving silently behind rocks and large bushes. The smell of humans was getting stronger. Moving down the side of the hill he started to sniff around to find the route they had taken. After about five minutes, he picked up on a concentrated human smell – this meant several people had come this way. As he got closer to the source, a large area of bushes appeared with metal sheets under it – something was hidden here. He moved closer – Vincent was looking from inside him and realised what it was – a camouflaged air ship and some vehicles. That meant there would probably be some guards in the area.

"Galian, look out for guards – kill them quietly when you find them" said Vincent. As Galian moved around, he caught their smell strongly and then in to view came a group of guards at a make shift camp, sitting around playing cards – they were obviously used to never having anyone come in to this area and their patrolling was virtually nonexistent from the looks of it. Galian moved up directly behind them and then lunged forward fast at the six guards. They looked up just as his mouth opened over the head of one of the guards, biting it off with ease. The rest of the guards were shocked but managed to recover fast, pulling their weapons and taking close aim at Galian – but they had no chance. Galian's huge claws swept around in front of him, catching the remaining five guards with ease – as they fell on the ground he jumped on them, stamping his feet on them and ripping their throats out with his teeth. Galian was also not happy at what had happened to Katherine.

He then sniffed around some more and found a pathway leading away from the camouflaged air ship – they had gone this way. Once again Galian moved forward, mindful of not being seen, but moving faster now that he had their scent. As he got to one point of the path he could smell – Katherine! Part of her body must have touched the ground at this point for a short time – may be her arm fell off some stretcher they were carrying her on – but it was enough to tell him she was this way. The pathway was well hidden amongst rocks and thick bushes and would be impossible to see unless you had walked right on to it. Cloud's decision to use Galian had been correct. As Galian went further down the pathway changed direction and began following the edge of a cliff. After another two minutes Vincent could see an entrance in the side of the cliff – they had found it. "Well done Galian, we need to change back now" said Vincent. Galian sank back down inside of him and Vincent came forward again. After a few moments of breathing and getting control of his body again, Vincent moved in to some of the bushes at the side of the path and released the signal beacon.

The chopper and the rest of the air ships had now landed and the warriors were all on the ground, waiting for their orders. AVALANCHE and G Squad were standing around Cloud tense in anticipation. Cloud's eyes were glued to the hand held signal beacon receiver he was holding, waiting for the location to appear on it. "Come on, Vincent" he thought to himself "don't be a fool and decide to go in on your own". Suddenly the receiver display lit up – the coordinates were there. "Let's move out!" said Cloud and started up the hill towards the location with his friends following him. The Turks moved up behind them too as they made it up the hill – the rest of the warriors would follow behind them in case such a large number were more easily viewable before they had had a chance to get in to the cavern.

10 minutes later, Vincent heard them approaching and moved out on to the pathway to join them. He pointed to the entrance way and Cloud nodded. They moved forward silently and arrived at the entrance. "Ok let's hit it – Vincent you focus on finding Katherine, we will take out the guards" said Cloud, as Reno pulled out his communicator and ordered the backup squads to move in fast. Just as they crept inside the entrance, the silence was shattered by the sound of large alarm bells. Thinking that they had been discovered, they took off at a run, weapons drawn.

As they rounded the corner they heard a guard yell out "she's escaped, find her – don't leave the exit unmanned!". G Squad ran forward, weapons drawn and engaged the guards there – the guards had not been expecting an attack from behind and turned around in disbelief as they saw them running to them. They closed in and the fighting began. Reno ran up to Vincent "don't engage them, leave them to us and go forward with Cloud and Zak". The three of them ran forward, the guards had no chance of trying to follow them as the rest of G Squad and AVALANCHE were on top of them – they were unable to even use their communicators to warn the rest of the cavern that they were under attack.

Meanwhile the guard in the room Katherine was watching grabbed his shirt and his jacket and slung his gun over his shoulder, running out of the room and banging the door behind him. Katherine just kicked down the air vent with her foot, not bothering to worry about unscrewing it now. She groaned at the force of the vent on her bare foot, but jumped down and took up position near the door. She could hear other guards running along outside, heading out towards the main cavern. After a couple of minutes the noise died down and Katherine opened the door quietly and looked out. No one was there – good she could move on.

As she came out in to the corridor another door further down opened and a guard ran out. He'd been in the shower when the alarm sounded and had been throwing on his clothes. As he came out he saw Katherine and pulled his gun out. Katherine did not even hesitate – raising her hands in his direction she yelled "Sapphire Protection!". Green coloured bolts emitted from her hands, striking the guard down in his chest. He would not be breathing again. It never even occurred to Katherine that she had just channelled her first ever limit break – it came naturally to her and she had just known what it was she needed to do. She ran forward and took his machine gun off him and added another spare clip to her belt, then started to move forward in the direction he had been heading in. Moving the opposite way would most likely just take her to the end of the corridor with no escape since she was in the sleeping quarters.

She rounded the corner and saw 3 guards – without hesitating she raised the gun and blasted them with a large burst of gun fire. Then she started moving again. The ruthlessness and coldness her father had described earlier on that day to G Squad had now taken her over and she would show no mercy towards those that had taken her. "We're under attack, it's the WRO!" she heard yelled from down the corridor. Katherine stood there listening, her heart beating in her chest – he was here, he was here! She started running forward again, the gun in her hands ready to blast whoever she saw. She entered a large cavern area, with hundreds of storage boxes piled up around and rolled over behind some. Some guards saw her come in and blasted gun shots at her as they moved behind some other storage boxes. Katherine crawled down along the line of boxes on her belly, changing her position. There were about 25 guards in this cavern – she needed to stay out of sight and hope that may be the WRO got to her fast. While she could take a few of them down on her own, 25 armed with machine guns was not going to lead to a good outcome for her.

Meanwhile Vincent, Cloud and Zak were pounding down one of the corridors. They came around a corner and then ran in to a security door that had been lowered once the attacks were discovered. There was no way of opening it and it appeared to be a thick sheet of metal. Cloud pulled out his communicator "Reno, get down here, we need a door opened" he yelled. "On my way" came the response and Reno and Rude started heading off down the corridor they had seen them take earlier on, with Darren, Troy and Kristian behind them. The backup squads were now in the cavern with the rest of AVALANCHE, ploughing through any of the guards stupid enough to try and fight. Most were now dropping their guns and falling to their knees, begging for mercy as they realised they had no way of winning.

Vincent was trying to claw his way through the metal door, his rage and his need to get to Katherine overwhelming him. "Vincent, Reno is nearly here, just wait" yelled Cloud. Vincent did not even hear him, just continued to claw at the door. Two minutes later Reno came in to view around the corner. "Wait around there until its blown" he yelled at them and the three of them moved back to stand with Kristian, Troy and Darren, even Vincent finally realising that assistance was here. Rude continued to stand where he was – he never left without Reno. Reno set the detonators and then ran back around the corner with Rude. "Dude, I know you love me, but that corner was meant for you too" grinned Reno at Rude. Rude just ignored him, waiting for the explosion to sound. The door blasted off and the 8 of them headed off once more down the corridor, running in to a large cavern filled with storage boxes and the sound of machine gun fire.

Katherine heard the guards moving forward and realised they were splitting up to take her from opposite ends of the cavern. Dammit, she was going to get stuck in between them. She raised herself to her knees just as 4 guards swung around the edge of the storage crates in front of her. They blasted at her and some bullets lodged in her shoulder and some in her thigh. Again she did not hesitate "Alex's Hate!" she yelled and red bolts of fire flew from her chest and her hands in to the four of them, smacking them against the wall where they slid down and fell in a heap. Katherine spun around and grabbed her gun, she knew another group of guards were about to appear and she was now in serious trouble, the bullets in her shoulder had put that arm out of action and she could barely turn on that thigh, blood pouring from her wounds. She hoisted the machine gun up to her chest with one arm, prepared to take out some in her last moments.

Vincent heard Katherine's yell and spun in her direction. He then saw 9 guards running to the side of a row of storage crates and realised that Katherine was behind it. He couldn't get across to her before they rounded the corner, damn it. "My turn, Host, release me!" yelled Chaos in rage. Vincent did not hesitate and four seconds later the cavern was filled with the angry roar of Chaos as he advanced at speed towards the guards. They spun around and their eyes opened wide in terror as they started firing at him. Their efforts were in vein – Chaos swooped down on them and started a frenzied attack, tearing them apart, throwing them against the wall and ripping their guns in half. He didn't stop until every single one of them was torn in pieces, his anger and his hate gleaming from his eyes. Katherine was on her knees, her mouth open as she saw this huge creature tear her attackers apart. As he finished killing them, he turned around and started advancing gently towards her. She looked up and saw his eyes – they were black and yellow. "Ch - Chaos? Chaos!" she cried out. He swooped down to her and gathered her up within his arms, shielding her with his wings as gun fire continued to tear through the cavern as G Squad took on the final group of guards. "You are safe now, Katherine, you are safe now" he said holding her close to his chest, crooning at her gently as he felt her body shudder. Her blood was spilling over him too and he could tell she was badly hurt.

"It's clear!" yelled Cloud and Chaos moved back down inside Vincent, allowing him to take his form again and hold Katherine. She looked up in to his eyes "Vin – Vincent" she uttered, her breath gasping as the pain racked through her and her blood flowed out fast. "It's ok Katherine, you are safe now, just relax and let me help you" he whispered, reaching in to his bag for some potions. The others ran up behind him and Cloud was once again on his communicator "medics, get down here, we have her" he yelled in to it. Vincent poured the elixir over her wounds and the bleeding slowed right down. They would be unable to remove the bullets until she was back in the medical facility, but the bleeding seemed to be the main danger at the moment, it was starting to send Katherine in to shock. Vincent poured some more of the elixir over the wounds and then tilted it to her lips "drink this, Katherine" he said to her gently. She allowed him to pour it in to her mouth and managed to swallow some, coughing as she did. Her bleeding had now stopped. Casting his eyes over her he noticed that the extent of her other injuries seemed to be mainly cuts and bruises and she had some nasty gashes on her feet. There was also a handprint on her face that made Vincent's chest constrict with fury. Someone had hit her.

Katherine shivered, the loss of blood and shock had lowered her temperature and she was now cold. Vincent unclasped his cloak and wrapped it around her, holding her eyes with his. "How is she, Host?" asked Chaos. "The bleeding has stopped for now but if we move her it will start again and she is in shock" responded Vincent. Her eyes fluttered closed, she was conscious but in great pain. Vincent held her so gently and so close to his chest, his arms wrapped completely around her as they waited for the medics to appear. "You are so brave, Katherine" he whispered in her ear "so brave". Her eyes opened again "I knew you would come, Vincent, I knew you would come" she breathed gently "Vincent - I met Chaos" she said as her eyes closed again and she lay in his arms.

Cloud's communicator spluttered again. "Cloud?" said Tifa's voice. "I'm here Tifa, we have her and are waiting for the medics to arrive. How are things at your end?". "All good, we have secured most of the cavern now and the backup squads are just moving through making sure we've found all the guards. The air fleet is moving up closer to take the prisoners and Reno has gone to get the chopper to move Katherine out" she replied. Vincent had not even noticed Reno and Rude leave the cavern where they were. "We haven't found Davies yet though Cloud, he must be hiding somewhere" finished Tifa. Cloud grimaced. "We will find him Tifa, we will be covering every inch of this cavern until we do and clearing out everything that he has here too" responded Cloud. "The medics have just passed me Cloud, they will be with you in a couple of minutes" said Tifa. "Thanks Tifa, once they have her stabilised we'll bring her up and then we can finish checking the cavern for Davies" ended Cloud.

A minute later some of the backup squad entered the cavern followed by the medics, who ran over to Katherine and started checking her vital signs. "I'm sorry Sir, but we need you to put her down so we can stabilise her and get her ready to move" said one of the medics to Vincent. He nodded and whispered in her ear "I will be right next to you, Katherine" and gently laid her down. He moved back out of the way of the medics, but continued to rest his hand against the back of her head so she knew he was close by. He was not going to leave her. They injected some painkillers in to her and bandaged her wounds to help keep the blood flow from returning when she was moved. Then they lifted her gently on to a stretcher and lifted her up. "Ok Sir, we're ready to take her up but we'll be going slowly and changing carriers on the way" the medic said to Vincent. Vincent nodded, snatched his cloak up off the ground and walked alongside of the stretcher so that Katherine could see him.

As they went back up they were suddenly confronted by a large group of about 30 guards, with Davies standing at the back of them. The medics hit the ground and covered Katherine as G Squad and the backup squad moved forward and went in to action, Vincent already firing at them. Some of the guards fell instantly with his shots straight between their eyes. Davies laughed – "you won't get out just yet, my dear" he yelled at her. Stone cold rage coursed through Katherine's veins – she was completely unaware of her pain and her condition. Raising herself up slightly she pushed the medic off of her body and knelt up. "You sick, deranged bastard!" she yelled at him. He grinned at her, his insanity preventing him from realising the danger of his situation.

"Soul Summon!". Vincent's head snapped around as he heard the words and in front of his eyes, a huge white lion, with thick, sparking fur appeared, lights shining off of it. "NO!" yelled Davies in rage. "What's the matter Davies, I thought you wanted to see my break?" cackled Katherine in a cold, fear inspiring laugh. Her hand was running up along the neck of her summon as she towered over Katherine. "Kill him" said Katherine and her summon lunged forward, leaping at Davie's throat. The sheer size and power of Katherine's summon was beyond anything that Vincent had imagined. As its teeth tore in to Davie's throat, huge bolts of white light erupted from its body, stunning all those around it. The guards stared at it in absolute fear, some of them stupidly opening fire on it. As Davie's body, minus his throat, was thrown against the wall the summon turned towards those firing at it and let out a huge roar. Then it was in amongst them, ripping and tearing at them as well as shooting stunning bolts at all those around it.

The guards screamed in terror and those far enough away from it dropped their weapons and fell upon their knees cowering in fear. Suddenly, it was over. All those that had attacked it were dead and it bounded back to Katherine's side, rubbing against her hand and purring loudly at her. "Well done my baby" cooed Katherine and waving her hand the summon disappeared back inside of her. There was silence in the passageway. Even those familiar with Vincent's demons were stunned. Hell, even Vincent was stunned – he had never imagined her summon being anything like this.

Katherine fell back down on the stretcher in a faint and the medics hurried to check her over then picked her up and continued on their way back up, as the backup squad kicked the guards on to the floor and threw all their weapons in to the corner.


	10. Chapter 10  Back to base

I hope you enjoy chapters 9 and 10 and that I have taken the right approach with them. I finished chapters 14 and 15 over the weekend but I'm not sure whether I'm on the right track with them or not – I'm wondering whether I should add a couple more in between to extend the approach, I'll have to see how I go.

10. **Back to base**

Once AVALANCHE and the rest of G Squad had mobilised, Arist brought the children across from the lounge area in the living quarters. The adults settled them on the couches as Reeve found a TV and DVD player in Sturge's office and set it up for them to watch some DVDs that Shera produced. Marlene and Denzel were settled down on a couch with them, Marlene cuddling Sierra who was now starting to doze off, happy to be with the rest of the children.

The women were settled close by trying to make small talk about the children, their minds really focused on what was happening but trying to keep the atmosphere in the room calm. The men were in Sturge's office, talking about Davies and how he had managed to build up the attack force that they had witnessed that morning. Reeve had received medical reports on everyone who had been injured – the Senior Staff was out of successful surgery and would be well enough to be back on duty in a couple of weeks. The trainees had mainly cuts and bruises and a couple of concussions – a lucky outcome as far as Reeve was concerned. All the prisoners had been moved in to holding cells and G Squad security guards had started the interrogations.

All trainees and staff on the facility had by now been made aware of the fact that Katherine had been abducted and G Squad and AVLANCHE mobilised to bring her back. As the recovery teams moved about removing rubble and debris there was a serious feeling among them all. To know that one of their members was in trouble was a new experience for these trainees and some of them were finding it hard to come to terms with.

Suddenly the direct line on Sturge's desk rang and he hit the speaker button to answer it. "Sturge" he said. "We have her" said Cloud and everyone let out a sigh of relief. "How is she?" asked Sturge as Elizabeth came to stand next to Edwin, who put his arms around her and held her. "She has received some injuries but has been stabilised and Reno is flying her back now with the medics. Vincent is with them" responded Cloud.

"What about Davies?" asked Sturge. "He's dead – I'll explain the details to you when we get back" said Cloud. The men realised he did not want to give a full explanation within the hearing of the women and children. "Have any of our team been injured?" asked Reeve. "Beyond bruising and cuts and a few nice gashes, no" said Cloud. "Galian found the entrance for us and as we entered the alarms went off. We thought they had detected our arrival but then discovered Katherine had escaped from where they were holding her" explained Cloud. "The guards were therefore caught in surprise by our attack and we were able to subdue them quite quickly. Some of them are dead". Reeve closed his eyes in a moment of silent relief – he had hated the thought of some of his staff being killed or seriously injured.

"We're doing a final search on the caverns now to make sure everyone has been rounded up" said Cloud "and squads will stay in place until the cavern has been investigated tomorrow and in particular all of Davie's records have been extracted and removed to the WRO. Reeve, the equipment he has here is top of the range, he must have had millions of gil invested in it not to mention the cost of running the cavern and paying his staff. He even had an air ship hidden outside" continued Cloud.

"When you see how remote this location is I have no idea how he managed to develop the laboratories he has here" he finished. "That will be investigated, we need to be sure that no one else has been involved with him" said Reeve. "I think it might be useful to talk to Rufus about this, Reeve – he may have some old company records that might throw a little more light on the matter, old Shinra must have been involved in some way I am sure" said Cloud. "Very well, I will brief him first thing in the morning and ask for his assistance in looking in to the background" said Reeve. They heard Cloud having some muffled words with someone else. "It looks like we have finished here for now Reeve – the backup squads will stay here, the air fleet is now on the ground outside of the cavern so they have full facilities on board" said Cloud. "G Squad is pulling out back to base we'll back in about an hour and 15 minutes". "Very well, we'll see you then – your families are here anxiously waiting for your return" concluded Reeve. "Oh and one last thing Reeve – Katherine has channelled her summons break" said Cloud and the line was disconnected.

Elizabeth and Edwin gasped and looked at each other – she had finally done it and was no longer at risk from Davies. Reeve smiled at them. "I am sure that is welcome news for you" he said gently. They nodded, Elizabeth wiping a few tears from her eyes. The intercom on Sturges desk buzzed again. "Sturge" he said answering it. "Director, the helicopter will be arriving outside the building in 22 minutes, medical staff are now in place and waiting to receive Katherine" said a female voice. "Thank you Sue, do you know where Ms Black is located at the moment?" asked Sturge. "She has been removed to a side room Sir and has G Squad guards both inside her room and outside of it". "Thank you" said Sturge and disconnected the call.

"Well" said Shera "I think I should get these little monsters down in to bed, it's been a long day for them. Arist, would you like to put Sierra in with them for now so that you can wait for Yuffie in here?" "That would be a great idea thanks Shera" he said walking over to lift his little daughter from Marlene's lap. Marlene whispered to Denzel who nodded. They both stood up. "We'll come too Auntie Shera and stay with them, then you can both come up here and wait for them to get back" said Marlene. Shera smiled at them "thank you my dears, we'll see the rest of you shortly" she said and they all left the room carrying young children or holding their hands, Denzel and Marlene carrying Zoe and Ben.

Rebecca stood up. "I'll take your bags down to your room for you now so they are there when you are ready" she said to Elizabeth and Edwin "no doubt you will want to wait until you have seen Katherine". The Bucks nodded and smiled at her in gratitude. Sturge looked up. "I think we will have Chrissie located down there with them too, Rebecca – perhaps you would escort her to her quarters to collect anything she will need" said Sturge. "Of course – come with me Chrissie, it won't take long" said Rebecca and she led Chrissie out of the room. G Squad security guards fell in to step in front and behind them as they exited the room – Chrissie was going to feel quite safe tonight.

Meanwhile on the helicopter the medics were continuing to monitor Katherine and were in contact with the senior doctor in the G Squad medical centre, who was giving them instructions for checks he wanted them to run during the flight. One of the medics pulled open one of Katherine's eyes and shone a light in to it before talking back in to his headset. He caught the eyes of the medic sitting across on her other side and they exchanged a glance. Vincent sat as close to Katherine as he could without getting in their way. His feeling of having her back was indescribable – he felt as if his life was once again worth living. "Thank you for your help today Galian" he said and could hear Galian panting in response. "And to you as well Chaos – I could not have moved to her fast enough to save her" said Vincent. "We will always protect her Host" said Chaos.

Vincent fell silent again, his eyes closed as he went over the events of the day. He could remember the sound of her voice when he located her in the cavern – Alex's Hate. That has to be one of her breaks, he thought. Then the summons break – Soul Summon, Chaos had been right in that respect. Vincent was still slightly stunned from the appearance and absolute power of the beast – it was nothing like he had expected. It had to be due to its Cetra links he assumed, although why the women in Katherine's family would inherit a summons break that originated from the Cetra he had no idea. Perhaps Nanaki would be able to help research it, if there was anywhere that would hold records of it, it would be Cosmo Canyon.

Rude turned his head around to Vincent "we'll be landing in about 16 minutes" he said and Vincent nodded.

Chrissie threw a few items of clothes and some bits and pieces into a bag and then headed back to G Squad with Rebecca. Trainees had watched her as she walked through the facility and arrived at her quarters but the security guards were letting no one near her – more for her privacy than any other reason. Just as she arrived back the doors opened and a large number of security guards came out and stood waiting next to the archway. Chrissie wondered what was going on and looked at Rebecca. "They will be getting ready for the helicopter to arrive in a few minutes" Rebecca smiled at her. "We'll head up to the main office so that you can wait with your parents and I will take your bag for you" she suggested and Chrissie smiled her thanks. As they entered the reception area, Sue pressed a button and the security gates clicked open allowing them to enter. Rebecca and Sue shared a warm smile and Rebecca continued on with Chrissie.

As they reached the main office Reeve looked up. "Ah Chrissie you are back. I think then that I will now take the three of you around to the medical centre, Katherine will be arriving shortly. Please be aware that although you will catch sight of her arriving, you will need to let the medical staff do their job before you are able to get close to her" said Reeve. Elizabeth's face scrunched up and a few tears leaked out of her eyes, but she nodded at Reeve in acceptance. Reeve then guided the three of them out of the office over to the medical facility and they stood next to the entrance waiting.

One of the doctors noticed them and headed over to speak to them. "Commissioner, Mr and Mrs Buck, I am Dr Hugh Williams. I will be heading up the treatment of your daughter this evening. As soon as she arrives we will need to take her in for some tests and some monitoring however I will ensure you are able to come in and see her as soon as possible. She has been kept under surveillance by the medics on the flight here and although she is not conscious at the moment, it is nothing to be alarmed at". One of the nurses gestured towards him. "Ah it looks as if the helicopter is about to land if you will excuse me. Ms Smart – would you wait with Mr and Mrs Buck please and see that they have anything they need". With that he nodded and then disappeared down in the lift with the rest of the medical team. Ms Smart was one of the administrative staff and she came towards them smiling. "How about we sit down over here so that we will be out from under their feet but you will be able to see Katherine arriving" she said gently and they followed her and sat down, Chrissie sitting with them. Reeve lounged against the wall – Vincent would be arriving with her and he wanted to see him.

Outside the security guards stepped out from under the archway and formed a circuit. The trainees in the area wondered what was going on. Then the beat of a helicopter's blades was heard and a few moments later the Turk's helicopter arrived overhead coming to land outside of the building. Once the blades stopped spinning Reno hopped out and slid open the rear doors. Vincent jumped out and moved to the side out of the way as the medical staff surged forward to help the medics. Katherine's stretcher was lifted out and placed on to the wheeled one next to the chopper and then they were off, moving at a fast pace with Vincent bringing up the rear at a brisk walk. Reno hopped back on board, the chopper took off and the security guards disappeared back inside with the doors closing behind them.

The medical team knew what it was doing and the senior doctor was in discussion with the medics as they moved along the corridor. The reached the entrance to the medical centre and Katherine's parents stood up and moved as close as they could, looking at her face as the stretcher moved past them. Then the medical team was inside the treatment room and doors swung closed. Vincent came up past the doors and took up a position leaning against the wall with his arms folded and his head faced down towards the floor.

Reeve walked over to him. "Vincent, welcome back" he said in greeting. Vincent's head raised up and he nodded at Reeve but said nothing. "How was she on the flight?" asked Reeve. Vincent glanced over to make sure Katherine's parents were not within earshot. "She has some bullets in her that will need to be extracted and lost a lot of blood, but apart from that seems to be ok. There is one thing though, Reeve". Reeve looked at him intently. "You will recall I mentioned the mako substance that Davies developed to enhance his life span by 50 years – the medics were doing regular checks on her eyes once the doctor instructed them too". Reeve didn't say anything but he looked at Vincent and clapped his hand on his shoulder. Vincent lowered his head again and Reeve realised he wasn't going to say anything else. Vincent was Vincent. He now needed to be able to rest there against the wall until he could see Katherine.

Reeve went over to the Bucks and sat down. "The sight of her arriving must have filled you with relief" he said smiling at them. Elizabeth nodded. "It will be even better once we have been able to go in and see her" she said "but just knowing that she is back here – Commissioner I can't tell you how grateful we all are" she said with tears once again welling up in her eyes. Reeve nodded "I understand". "Would it be alright if I spoke to Vincent?" Reeve nodded at her and she and Edwin walked over and spoke to him softly. Vincent looked up and unfolded his arms and straightened up as he listened to them. He said a few words and Katherine's parents nodded. Then Edwin held out his hand and Vincent shook it, Elizabeth stepped forward and gave him a brief hug and then the two of them returned to their seats leaving Vincent to take up his position again. They seemed to realise that he needed to be on his own for the moment.

After about 40 minutes the door opened and Dr Williams appeared. "Mr and Mrs Buck, Katherine is doing well. She does have some bullet wounds that, although not serious, need to be attended to in surgery and we will be taking her in shortly. I thought you might like to come and see her for a few minutes before we do" he said. They got up and walked in to the room behind him, Chrissie with them and were inside for about 5 minutes. Then they came out again smiling. Reeve went over to them. "She is still not conscious, but she looks ok – they are taking her in now and she'll be in for a couple of hours most likely" Elizabeth told them. "I know that you feel as if you want to sit here and wait but it will be some time before she comes around after surgery and then they'll be needing to do more testing and trying to get her to sleep. Why don't you go down to your room now and try and get some sleep and I'll have the medical centre come and get you when she's ready to see you" Reeve suggested. Elizabeth started to shake her head, but Edwin said "an excellent suggestion Commissioner, I think both of these ladies could do with some sleep at the moment and I know the medical staff will raise us as soon as we can see her again". "I'll walk over with you" said Reeve and they walked down the corridor to find their room. Vincent barely noticed them going, his mind was focused solely on Katherine.

Meanwhile the Highwind was landing and the rest of G Squad disembarked, heading towards their main office. They walked in and Arist came straight up to Yuffie and crushed her in to his arms, holding her as if he would never let her go. Shera met Cid halfway across the room and he held her close to him too. Hearing that Marlene was in the personal quarters Barret had already headed in that direction. Sturge and Reeve came out of Sturge's office to greet them all. "Good to have you all back and well done" said Sturge. "Where's Vincent?" asked Yuffie. "He's over at the medical centre waiting to be able to see Katherine. I think he wants to be alone at the moment" said Reeve. Yuffie nodded. "I think I am going to go to bed" she said "and we can debrief in the morning if that's ok". "Good idea Brat" said Cid and headed to the door holding Shera's hand "night all". Yuffie and Arist disappeared to go and get Sierra and go to bed. "I'll go see Denzel and sort the kids out and see you downstairs, Cloud" said Tifa kissing him and then nodding goodnight to Reeve and Sturge. Nanaki, Cloud, Zak and the three Lieutenants wandered in to Sturge's office. "Well, I suppose you'd like to hear what happened" said Cloud. Sturge nodded and handed them some coffee while Nanaki settled down to a bowl of water. "It went like this" and Cloud launched in to a description of the events of the last few hours.

Vincent stood in the dimly lit corridor outside the treatment room for three hours. Eventually the door opened and Dr Williams appeared. "I thought I might find you here, Vincent" he said. "How is she Hugh?" he said straightening up and unfolding his arms. "Come and see" said Hugh smiling. Vincent walked straight in and up to her bed, where one of the nurses was tucking her in and checking her IVs before walking off to a desk at the side of the room. Hugh came up behind Vincent. "She did come round after the surgery but was tired and dropped off again without having to be given anything to help her to sleep" Hugh told him. "How did her surgery go?" Vincent asked. "It was fine. Yes, she had bullets lodged in her but they were fairly close to the surface and extracted easily. You're a fighter, you will be able to process that thought rather easier than her parents will tomorrow, no doubt" he responded.

"She had also lost a fair amount of blood, but nothing like what she would have lost if you had not given her the elixir. I gave her a top up while she was coming round from surgery and she will be fine. She had some deep gashes on her feet – looked as if she had kicked down hard on something metallic and of course she'd obviously been moving around with bare feet, but we cleaned them out and put in a few stitches and again they will be fine, although no doubt a little sore tomorrow. The rest of her injuries were mainly bruises and small cuts, again we cleaned them all up and they will be fine. The bruise on her face is from a hard slap – it will have faded a lot by morning. I will be continuing to run some tests on her to see if there is anything else we need to pick up and hopefully tomorrow I'll receive a copy of anything that Davies did to her, but for now she's fine and mostly in need of sleep" concluded Hugh.

"What about her eyes?" said Vincent. "Her eyes are fine – we have been monitoring them to see if they give an indication on anything else going on inside of her, but as I say, hopefully tomorrow we'll get a copy of anything Davies may have done and then we'll be able to take it from there" said Hugh, with obviously no intention of discussing anything in more detail. Vincent nodded. "Can I sit with her?" he asked. "I thought you might like to do that Vincent – she will be asleep, but you are welcome to pull up a chair next to her. The nurse will be over at her station throughout the night so if you need anything or have any concerns, talk to her" he finished. "I'm going to go and write up my report now and then I'll be back in the morning to see how she's going. Dr Forest is on the night shift and will be through later to check on her". Hugh nodded at him and walked out of the room. Vincent pulled up a chair that was near the bed and sat as close to her as he could without disturbing her. He placed his hand over hers and sat there for the next few hours.


	11. Chap 11  Katherine learns of her histor

**Chapter 11 - Katherine learns of her history**

The morning after Katherine's recovery from Gongoga, a long breakfast was taking place in the G Squad personal quarters. The kitchens and dining rooms on the ground floor were in use, since all of AVALANCHE and their families, G Squad and Katherine's family were housed on the personal quarter's floors. Rebecca and Sue had made sure the kitchen had a full supply the night before and Elizabeth and Edwin had appeared in there quietly around 6.30am to make some drinks and get something to eat before heading up to the medical centre. Next ones to appear shortly after 7am had been Tifa and Shera and the children who had eaten a large number of pancakes before asking if they could go outside to play. Tifa had had the idea of contacting Reeve and a group of trainees had subsequently been waiting for the children outside to take them off and keep them entertained for a few hours.

"Thank heaven for that" said Shera "the last thing I have the energy for right now is keeping the kids occupied". Tifa passed her another coffee "me too, why is it the guys always seem to be able to sleep through it when the kids wake up?" "I wish I knew their secret" said Arist yawning as he came in with Sierra "somehow Yuffie seems to have managed to sleep in this morning". He got Sierra some cereal and then found some children's programs on the TV in the lounge room for her to watch, allowing him to lie back on the couch and doze off for a bit again. Chekov and Gorky appeared shortly after and received some coffee from Tifa but refused anything to eat. "We will be returning to Wutai in the next 20 minutes since Lady Yuffie and Lord Arist will be remaining here for a while" said Gorky. After they had finished their coffee they headed over to the air fleet to fly back. Nanaki was the next to appear and accepted some bacon and water from Shera and then wandered in to the lounge room to sit next to Sierra.

Yuffie was next and she met Chrissie as she came out of her room, the two girls appearing in the kitchen together. "How are you feeling this morning Chrissie?" asked Shera. Chrissie smiled at her "I feel so relieved knowing that Katherine is back and that she is now safe from that scientist as well. I wanted to go and see her earlier with mum and dad but they told me to wait until later when the doctors have said she is well enough to receive visitors" she explained. "But something dawned on me when I woke up this morning. Yesterday we all of us found out everything about her parent's death, her limit breaks, the threat against her from the scientist, what her parents friends had done to try and protect her etc – even the location of her parents remains. But Katherine knows nothing – all she knows is that they disappeared, that she now has three limit breaks and that someone abducted her. She's one that has been affected by all of this, but she knows nothing about it".

The other women looked at her in silence – Chrissie was right. "One thing I can promise you Chrissie is that Wutai will find her parent's remains and arrange for them to be returned to Katherine. Wutai will also recognise the bravery and help for Wutai from her parents. It's not much, but at least it will make her feel a bit better about it I hope" said Yuffie.

"Mmm bacon" said a voice and Cloud appeared at the door. The sound of others making their way down the stairs could also be heard so Tifa and Shera once again started making some food while Chrissie and Yuffie started to lay the table. Cid, Barret, Denzel, Zack and the Lieutenants made their way in and headed to the coffee and orange juice. "Marlene will be down in a minute, ma lil princess is havin her shower" said Barret. Zak slid around the room so that he was standing next to Chrissie. "How are you Chrissie?" he asked quietly. "I'm fine Zak, I'm fine – getting Katherine back was all I needed and we did, thanks to you and your friends". "May be once you've been in to see her this morning you might like to come for a walk – get a bit of fresh air" asked Zak hopefully. Chrissie went a little bit pink "that would be nice, thanks Zak".

Just then Sturge and Reeve appeared in the doorway – "ah ha, we thought this might be the right place to come to" said Reeve cheekily. Tifa rolled her eyes "how many more of you should we be expecting for breakfast I wonder" she said as she threw some more bacon on to cook. "Has anyone seen Vincent this morning?" asked Yuffie. "I think he was going to stay at the medical centre for a while last night, Yuffie" said Reeve "and I've not spoken to him this morning". Nanaki wandered in "I saw him head back up to his room when Katherine's parents left to go to the medical centre a couple of hours ago – I'll go up now and have a word with him" he said and headed upstairs.

Next to arrive was Sue. "Good morning everyone" she said. "Chrissie, your sister is awake now and would like to see you. If you come with me I'll take you up" she said. Chrissie got up straight away and disappeared with Sue.

"We have a few things to organise today" said Sturge as he nursed his cup of coffee. "We need the full debriefing on yesterday's rescue and reports submitted from all of you. Although I know that Katherine's parents would like some explanation, they are nonetheless civilians and I don't think it's appropriate for them to be present during a thorough debriefing. The Commissioner is going to contact Rufus Shinra about some background checks and we need to start interrogating Ms Black. Davie's cavern needs a thorough investigation and we need his reports etc brought in to the WRO – particularly any details of what happened to Katherine yesterday, Dr Williams needs that urgently so that he can continue his tests on Katherine. Then we have the need for Katherine to be given a full explanation of everything from her parent's involvement in Wutai right up to what happened to her yesterday. It is rather ironic that we all heard it yesterday in her absence. I also need a report from Katherine on her escape and discovery of her limit breaks when she is well enough to provide it" concluded Sturge.

"I would suggest handing the recovery of Davies's electronic records over to the Turks – they are well experienced in that process and Reno is, I would imagine, capable of accessing through any passwords that Davies set up, particulary since Davie's background is with old Shinra" said Cloud.

Sturge nodded "I'll go and contact them shortly. The search of the caverns I will assign to Commander West from our research department, he can have the backup squads assist his team with the removal of items from the caverns. I want the whole place cleaned out completely. Once we have finished with it I will be recommending that it be sealed to prevent it from being utilised by anyone in the future" he stated. Reeve nodded "agreed".

"Zak, you and Darren can handle Ms Black this morning" he continued - Zak nodded – "and I think we will hold our full debriefing at 11.30am in the main office, everyone to be there. I will talk to Katherine's parents about the best way to handle explaining everything to her. Her debrief can be held off for a few days until she's well enough to make her report" he looked up "and I think that covers everything we need to do today". "Sounds good to me" said Reeve, glancing at his watch "it's now 9.45am so I'll head over to my office and make contact with Rufus Shinra and then be over in G squad at 11.30am – I'll see you all later" and with that he rose and disappeared out the door.

"We'll see you at 11.30am too" said Zak and he and Darren disappeared to go and talk to Ms Black.

Just then Nanaki reappeared in the kitchen. "How's Vincent?" asked Sturge. "He's fine I suggested to him that he get changed in to more casual clothes in order that he can talk to Katherine's parents about what happened yesterday. They will need some explanation and Vincent is the most appropriate" said Nanaki and Sturge nodded. "Good idea Nanaki – I'll also be discussing with them how they feel the explanation to Katherine should be provided and for your information we'll be having a full debrief at 11.30am in G squad". Nanaki nodded "I will be there".

Just then Vincent appeared in the doorway, seemingly rather self conscious to be seen in casual clothes during work hours. Although he did sometimes leave off his cloak during the day, he always wore his leather gear and had his weapons equipped. This morning he just had Cerberus strapped to his thigh. "Good morning, Vincent" said Sturge and Yuffie went over to give him a hug. Vincent nodded at everyone and went over to pour himself some coffee – yes, definitely self conscious at being dressed in casual clothes, although casual to Vincent was still closely resembling a suit.

Everyone else then got up and started to head off to do various things before the debriefing at 11.30am. Sturge continued to sit at the table and Nanaki took up a position on the floor. "So how are you today Vincent?" asked Sturge. "I am fine" said Vincent leaning against the work top to drink his coffee. "How is Katherine?" continued Sturge. "Hugh says that she will recover fine from the injuries she received" he replied "although he is also waiting on reports of any experiments that Davies carried out on her". "They should be available today, the Turks will be handling that for us" said Sturge.

Vincent just continued looking down at the ground and holding his coffee. Sturge glanced at Nanaki who met his eyes and then looked away. "I gather you have agreed to provide an explanation of Katherine's recovery to her parents today" continued Sturge. Vincent nodded. "We will also need to obtain a debriefing from Katherine when she is up to it" added Sturge. Vincent looked up. "Who will be doing that?" he asked. "I was thinking that perhaps you and Yuffie might be appropriate to do it" suggested Sturge "since Katherine is used to working closely to you and established a good relationship with Yuffie as well". Vincent nodded and then started looking at the floor again.

Sturge wondered what next to say to progess his conversation with Vincent. Vincent was clearly not offering any information about anything at the moment. Sturge was also aware that although Vincent's feelings for Katherine were now known to AVALANCHE and he presumed G Squad, Vincent would be unlikely to want to discuss them openly with anyone and Sturge was also unclear whether Vincent had in fact said anything at all to Katherine about how he felt towards her. Which meant that Katherine's parents and her sister were also completely unaware. Vincent suddenly finished his coffee and placed his mug in the sink. "I'll head over to the medical centre and speak to Katherine's parents now" he said and disappeared out of the door.

Sturge sighed and looked at Nanaki. "Give him some time" said Nanaki "he is still adjusting to his new way of living and knowing Vincent, would in the normal course of events have developed his friendship with Katherine over a period of time. The issue in relation to her limit breaks and then her abduction have simply brought his feelings out in the open to his friends a lot sooner than would otherwise have happened. This will be difficult for Vincent since he most likely only came to understand the level of his feelings for her once she was put under duress – he is not used to discussing his personal relationships. I also doubt that he has said anything to her beyond what would be appropriate for him to say as her trainer".

Nanaki rose and headed over to the door and then turned and said mischievously "it would not surprise me if Yuffie and Tifa were more aware of his feelings for Katherine than he was up until when he raised the issue of her limit breaks". With that he disappeared off out. Sturge smiled at his closing comment and setting his mug down in the sink he returned to his office to make contact with the Turks and prepare for the mornings debriefing.

Vincent arrived at the medical centre and found Elizabeth and Edwin sat outside talking. They looked up as he walked towards them. "Vincent, it is good to see you" smiled Elizabeth "the doctors are running some more tests on Katherine so we were sent to wait outside for a while" she explained. "How is she feeling this morning?" Vincent asked. "Dr Williams says that her injuries are all getting better already although it will take a few days before she can place any weight on her feet and that her bullet wounds will take a week or so before she is able to move those limbs comfortably. We think that she is trying to cover up any of her discomfort so that we don't worry about her too much, but having said that it's mainly discomfort and reduced movement so she is a lot better than we were thinking she would be after she arrived last night" said Elizabeth. "Plus the fact that since we have no experience with her sort of warrior life style, bullet wounds to us sound a lot worse than they seem to be bothering anyone else she works with, so we have to assume that if you are comfortable with it, it's not as bad as we were assuming it was" added Edwin.

"Her wounds were surface wounds within the spectrum of bullet wounds. While they did require surgery, because they were not so deep as to damage her bones or affect her vital organs, she will make a full recovery and not lose any use of those parts of her body" Vincent clarified. Elizabeth sighed with relief. "Thank you Vincent, it is good to hear you confirm that to us" added Elizabeth.

"Director Sturge has asked me to come and just give you an overview of what happened yesterday when we went to rescue her" Vincent continued. "Thank you, we really are wanting to hear about what happened" said Elizabeth. "Bear in mind that I can only tell you about G Squad activities. Katherine has not been in a position to tell us about her captivity or her escape as yet and it will actually be a few days before we see if she is ready for a debriefing. While I am sure she is going over it within her own mind, she needs to have time to come to terms with what happened and recover some more before we try and piece it all together with her" he went on to explain. Her parents nodded at Vincent.

"G Squad landed near to the location Ms Black gave us and we then searched for the entrance to the cavern. Once we found it, the backup squads were given the specific location and told to advance. We went in to the cavern ahead of them and an alarm sounded when we did. We naturally assumed that they had discovered our attack, however it turned out that Katherine had managed to escape from where they were holding her, which thus assisted us to get through the cavern with limited knowledge of our presence".

"As we made it through the cavern, we came to a large cave filled with storage boxes and found several guards there. Katherine came under attack from one small group and was able to defend herself by using one of her limit breaks. I heard her voice and we were therefore able to locate where she was hiding and engage with the second group that was attempting to attack her. Katherine was then protected while the rest of the guards in the cave were defeated. Once the fighting came to an end we were able to administer some elixir to her to reduce her bleeding and treat her for shock by wrapping her body while we waited for the medics to arrive in the cave".

"Once they did they stabilised her and gave her some pain relief and then she was transported out of the cave back to the surface. On the way up scientist Davies was encountered with some of his guards. We were able to defeat them and during the fight Katherine actually channelled her summons break to assist us. The fighting was over immediately after and due to her condition and her use of her energy on her summons break, Katherine fainted. We therefore returned her to the surface and she was loaded on to the helicopter and flown back to base immediately. G Squad remained on site for a while longer ensuring that all the guards had been rounded up and then they returned to base late last night leaving the cavern secured under the presence of the backup squads, who remain there at the moment" concluded Vincent, hoping that her parents were not going to ask for too much detail about the fighting.

"Were any of the WRO staff killed?" asked Elizabeth anxiously. "No, there were even no serious injuries sustained, mainly just some cuts and bruises that were easily treated by medics on board the air fleet" Vincent reassured her. "One thing that we have been wondering about, AVALANCHE were apparently mobilised with G Squad. Why would they have been involved?" asked Edwin. "AVALANCHE are in fact members of G Squad, although our old title is still very often used" explained Vincent. "So when G Squad are mobilised, this does automatically include members of AVALANCHE" Vincent further explained, hoping that they would accept his explanation without realising that for Tifa, Yuffie, Barret and Nanaki to be involved did mean something unusual was happening. In this case, they were all there for him – for reasons which he had no intention of trying to explain to the Bucks.

"I see" said Edwin "and what about the guards at the cavern? Were any of them killed?" Here we go, thought Vincent. "Yes, some of them were killed as they decided to try and attack the WRO rather than just surrender. Once realisation hit the remainder of the guards that full WRO squads were present, they surrendered fast enough and were taken prisoner. It is always unfortunate when lives are lost in battles, however it is also an inevitable outcome when some people choose to live their lives by unnecessary violence" summed up Vincent. The Bucks were silent as they thought over what Vincent had said. "I guess that is true" said Edwin "as you will appreciate neither Elizabeth or I have ever been involved in warrior or defence lifestyles so it is a little hard for us to comprehend at times". "I understand that" responded Vincent "and in fact have been impressed with the way you have coped in this situation, especially when providing the information to us yesterday".

Just then Dr Williams came out of the treatment room. "Good morning Vincent" he said as he nodded in his direction. "We are finished with Katherine now so if you two would like to go back in, she is able to receive visitors again now" he said to the Bucks. "Actually, we do have some phone calls that we really should make to people – Vincent, I wonder if you could stay with Katherine for a while until we come back?" suddenly said Elizabeth. Edwin went to open his mouth to ask her what phone calls they needed to make and then found his wife's eyes giving him a hard stare. "Indeed, we really should do that or people will be wondering what is happening with Katherine" he followed up smoothly. "Of course" said Vincent nodding his head at them. "Ok then, we'll be back in a little while, come on Edwin" said Elizabeth and walked off with her husband. Vincent stood up and walked in to the treatment room with Hugh, almost trembling at the thought of seeing Katherine awake at last.

"So we are going to phone people because?" Edwin asked Elizabeth – "because you always do as your wife tells you" responded Elizabeth. "Let's go and see if we can find somewhere to get a coffee while we wait until we can go back" she said. Edwin stood with his mouth slightly agape before rolling his eyes and following his wife. Being the sole male in the household had taught him many years ago not to even try and work out what the women in his life were up to half of the time.

Vincent walked up to the side of Katherine's bed. "How are you feeling Katherine?" he asked. Katherine opened her eyes and look at him. "Vincent! I am feeling a little bit sore and stiff but on the whole not too bad" she said as she tried to raise herself up in her bed a little. Vincent put his arms out and gently pressed her back down. "Don't try and get up yet Katherine, rest is the best way of getting better" he said soothingly. He then pulled up a chair by the side of her bed.

"I must admit I am rather tired, Dr Williams says it's the effects of the anaesthetic I had during surgery and it will work its way out of my body gradually" said Katherine, glad that she was able to continue lying down. "I'm sure it will and by the time it does you will also be feeling a lot better" reassured Vincent. "I have just been with your parents, explaining to them what happened when G Squad landed at the cavern. They have now gone to make some phone calls and will be back in a little while" he said. Katherine bit her lip. "Do you want to ask me about what happened to me?" she said. Vincent straight away picked up on her anxiety and wondered what it was in particular that was worrying her. "No, not at all at the moment" he said comfortingly. "When you are feeling better and up to talking about it Yuffie and I would like to listen to what happened to you, but until you are ready, you don't need to mention it to anyone". Katherine relaxed a bit.

"I met Chaos, Vincent – he saved me in that cave. I thought I was going to die and was going to try and take out a few guards as they shot me" she said tonelessly. Vincent looked at her face – she was looking down at her chest and Vincent understood how she must be feeling. "Yes, he did save you Katherine – I heard you call out one of your limit breaks but was too far from you to reach you before that group of guards did. Chaos said it was his turn and within a few seconds he had those guards engaged and then covered you with his wings to protect you while the rest of the guards were rounded up". Tears welled up in Katherine's eyes. "You both of you saved me Vincent – if you had not been there, I would have died before they could get me out" she whispered. Vincent reached over and took the hand of her uninjured arm and held it between his hand and his claw in comfort. "Try not to think of what did not happen, Katherine – we did get to you and we got you out and back here to your parents. You will make a full recovery and that Davies is unable to hurt you ever again". Katherine screwed her eyes up and nodded.

"Is there anything that you need Katherine or anyone that you want to see?" Vincent asked gently. "No, I'm fine – I am glad you came to see me today. I was also thinking about Ms Black – what is going to happen to her now Vincent?". He tried to keep his face calm so that she would not see the anger in his thoughts. "Zak and Darren are with her now questioning her about her involvement. She will face charges once we know what she did, but rest assured she will never be in a position to be a threat to you ever again" he said gently. He was rubbing her hand trying to comfort her without really being aware of it. Katherine's eyes closed as if she was drifting back off to sleep and her hand turned in his slightly and held it.

Dr Williams came up. "Director Sturge has just rung to see if you are available for the debriefing Vincent, and it looks as if Katherine has dozed off. If you go now I will let her know her parents will be back shortly if she wakes up again" he said. Vincent nodded extracting his hand from her grasp and laying it down gently on the bed. "I will return later to see how she is going, Hugh" he said and exited the treatment room.

Katherine's eyes opened again a couple of minutes later to see Dr Williams standing next to her bed writing up her notes. "Vincent came to see me" she told him sleepily. "He was here all night sitting with you while you slept my dear" he responded. A smile appeared on her face and her eyes closed again as she drifted back off to sleep.

G Squad sat around Sturge as started the debriefing with them. He had of course heard most of it from Cloud the previous night but wanted to hear what the others had encountered when they were separated from him. "So I gather that Davies was in fact killed by Katherine" said Sturge. Zak nodded. "She channelled her summons break – I've never seen anything like it before. We're talking about something on the scale of Vincent's demons" he said. "I take it her parents don't realise it was actually her that killed him?" he sought clarification. Vincent who was now back in his leathers and his cloak shook his head. "I told them that she channelled her summons break and it assisted us, but that is all". "Hmm I think that is probably just as well – finding out that their daughter killed him, let alone the guards she must have shot, is probably not what they need to hear right now" Sturge concluded.

They continued over the events so that Sturge and Reeve were clear on everything that had happened. Then Sturge confirmed that the Turks were at the cavern downloading the reports from the computer system there. Reeve advised he had spoken to Rufus Shinra who was of the opinion that the old Shinra probably had him assigned to some projects despite the belief that Gast had established his dismissal. He didn't mention it yet, but they were both of the view that it might have been Hojo who enabled him to be set up in the cavern. Tseng and Elena were now going through some of the old records looking for anything they could find. "Zak, can you update us on Nancy Black's involvement please" asked Reeve.

Zak nodded. "As you know, she is an expert on materia and is obsessed with it. Somehow Davies must have learned that the WRO were looking for someone to take the classes and made her an offer that she was not able to resist to receive funding for her harvesting and also some materia pieces that were quite rare. All she had to do was to tell Davies if it was discovered that Katherine held some limit breaks. Davies had not told her why he needed to know and to be honest I think it was purely greed that made her turn a blind eye to asking him why he wanted to know. When in theory she had not been made aware of his intentions it must have been obvious – especially since she also let him know that Katherine was located in her room with just her as the time of their attack drew near. She obviously did know they were planning an attack on the WRO that morning, there is no why she can deny it". Reeve nodded. "Good, that will enable our legal department to lay a number of charges against her. I'll be giving them a copy of your interrogation report – and we'll also ensure that all pieces of her materia and accessories are confiscated. She will be transported off site this afternoon as we don't want Katherine to have to tolerate her presence in this location".

"Elizabeth and Edwin Buck have made the decision to tell Katherine about her history tomorrow afternoon by the way. They have requested your presence too Yuffie, to explain the Wutain side of things" said Sturge. Yuffie nodded. "Since you've all provided me with some written reports, the rescue mission is now concluded. Well done to all of you" concluded Sturge.

"In that case, I think we'll be headed back with the kids this afternoon" said Cid "anyone that wants a lift, we'll be leaving around 3pm". "Marlene and I will be there" said Barret and Cloud and Tifa also decided to leave. "If you need anything else from me I'll be back on Monday anyway" said Cloud. "Then this meeting is over, I'll see you all next time you are here" said Sturge and Reeve also bid them farewell and headed back to his office.

Once he got back to his office he received a phone call from Dr Williams. "Commissioner, I have the report back from the Turks now and I need to come see you right away" said Williams. "Do you want me to head over to the medical centre?" asked Reeve. "No, it will provide more confidentiality if I come to you, Commissioner" said Williams grimly "you might also like to ask Director Sturge to be present". "Very well I will see you as soon as you get here" said Reeve and then buzzed through to Sturge. Sturge gave no explanation in the office as to where he was headed, simply telling them he would be back later.

Vincent was in discussion with Nanaki about the Cetra origins of the summons break. "I have also been thinking of this Vincent, it is very unusual" said Nanaki "I am thinking that it might be useful if you were to come back to Cosmo with me this afternoon and we begin going through the records". Vincent looked as if was about to protest. "I think Vincent that there is little that you can do here at the moment, and this research will at least give you something to keep yourself occupied". Vincent thought for a moment and then nodded. "You are right Nanaki – I will go across to the medical centre to let the Bucks know that I will be back in a couple of days" he said standing up. "We will leave with Cid since the Highwind will be able to make a slight detour for us. I'll see you on board at 3pm" finished Nanaki and headed out of the door.

Vincent headed over to the medical centre. Dr Williams was not there but Elizabeth and Edwin and Chrissie were sitting around Katherine talking with her and Yuffie was also there. They looked up as he walked in. "I've just come to let you know that I will be returning to Cosmo Canyon with Nanaki for some research that we need to undertake. We'll be leaving this afternoon and I will be returning first thing on Saturday morning" he explained. Yuffie realised what they were going to research but did not mention it in front of Katherine, who of course was still in ignorance about the Cetra origin. Katherine felt extremely disappointed but did not show it in her manner. "Hopefully by then they will have used the Full Cure on me so that I can leave and go and get my furniture sorted out" she quipped. He smiled and nodded and then left the treatment room. He was aware that they had not yet used the Full Cure on her and wondered why – he supposed it was to ensure the bullet wounds were healing properly before they did. He headed back to his quarters to pack his bag.

Meanwhile Dr Williams had arrived at Reeve's office, clutching a copy of a report with him. "Commissioner, Director" he greeted them as he sat down. "I'll get straight to it. As you know the Turks fetched me copies of what Davies had done and intended to do to Katherine at the Cavern. Fortunately extracting the break did not occur – and neither did testing on her a new aphrodisiac that he had developed". His face sneered at the thought of this. "I have no doubt that he will have carried out some level of sexual assault on her, however I am of the hope that it was limited – according to the records he had planned on using the aphrodisiac after the break was extracted". Neither Reeve or Sturge made any comment – the Doctor's news about the assault was not overly surprising to them. They were also aware by now that Davies had obtained previous victims over the years to conduct a number of experiments on and that the female ones and even some of the males had been raped by him before being given to the guards to use before they disposed of them.

"There is however one experiment that was carried out. During the flight back the medics picked up on some signs in her eyes that – well related to mako. As you know, mako exposure results in some visual effects on the eyes". Reeve gasped and Sturge frowned. "I am aware from some information from Vincent that Davies had previously developed some mako related substance that extended his life expectancy". They both nodded. "Vincent by the way is unaware of any of this information, I obtained the mako substance information purely by asking him about Davies in conversation – however he did ask me about her eyes on the night she was brought back so he has obviously picked up on something. Naturally I gave him no information".

"I have established on a series of tests that there is no mako poisoning – that was my biggest concern. However now that I have the copy of his report and details of his experiment – god I don't know how to explain this. He made some further development in his mako related substance – he created a mako based immortality treatment. This treatment was tested on Katherine to see whether its application had any effort on her body such as whether her veins may have been burnt by it, prior to Davies applying the treatment to him and his laboratory partner. There were no side effects thank god, but the treatment has been successful from all that I can tell – Katherine is now immortal".

There was complete silence in the room. Neither Reeve or Sturge had anticipated anything like this and were both stunned. Williams shook his head "I really can't believe it even though I've read his reports and have been conducting tests on Katherine. I don't know whether Katherine knows or not – she's not said a word about anything that has happened to her while she was held captive and to be honest I think she's just trying to avoid telling anyone about her assault and her immortality. I am still struggling to come to terms with it myself and I have been a Doctor for more than 30 years".

Reeve spoke up. "Are you absolutely sure Hugh? There is no doubt?". "None whatsoever" he replied "I only wish that there was". There was silence in the room again as both Sturge and Reeve were processing this information. "So – what do we do?" asked Reeve. "She's going to have to be told and I will need to obtain information about the assault as well to ensure that she was not raped, but how the hell you tell a 24 year old woman that she is now 24 forever is beyond me" said Williams. "There is also the matter of her confidentiality – we know as we are the ones responsible for treating her and making her aware of her situation. However whether she tells her parents or anyone else is entirely up to her – we can't do it and we can't force her too either. Rude and Reno have obviously seen some of the information when they were downloading it but they have already both given an undertaking that they will make no mention of it to anyone. Reno has encountered a lot of things in his career but was staggered by this – if Davies was being held somewhere still I think he would most likely have killed him" said Williams.

"This affects our decision to have Yuffie and Vincent go through a debriefing with her. She cannot be expected to give them an explanation either of her sexual assault or her immortality. That is going to be awkward, Vincent is going to want to know why we have changed our minds" said Sturge. "The biggest irony is that Vincent is probably the only one on the plant who would be able to discuss it with her too" added Reeve.

"I can make her aware of his situation when I speak to her since his immortality is known to every member of G Squad but something tells me that she will not agree to speak even to him about it" said Williams. "Anyway I have to return back to the medical centre now, we need to apply the Full Cure since the mako treatment will not affect it and then her parents and Yuffie are coming to give her the story of her parents and her history. I just needed to make you aware of this. As soon as she's had the Full Cure she will of course be able to be dismissed from the medical centre, but I'm not sure that is in her best interests at the moment" concluded Williams. He shook his head but gathered up his papers and left the room.

Reeve looked at Sturge. "So what do we do now?" he said perplexed. "Well, obviously Williams is going to have to talk to her about the immortality and her assault. I suggest he also gets the rest of her information from her and then we can make up a report that of course excludes the confidential aspects. We can then say that she gave the information to Dr Williams as part of her discussions with him and so it is no longer necessary to have a further debriefing" suggested Sturge.

"Vincent is not going to buy that Ken, you realise that" said Reeve. Sturge sighed. "I know he's not, but on the other hand, once he's seen a copy of the report he actually has no grounds to ask for further information. He's not her direct supervisor, I am – even though he's been assigned as her overall trainer now" stated Sturge. "Even he will realise that he cannot ask her for any more information if we include in the report that she made the decision to speak solely to Dr Williams". Reeve contemplated this - "there is also the fact that he will be absent for the next two days, therefore we are able to explain that Katherine felt a need to discuss it with her doctor as she wanted to get it out of her system now" he said.

"The bottom line is that Vincent will know something occurred that we are refusing to disclose to anyone at her request – but there is nothing he can do about it. I'll talk to Williams some more this afternoon and tell him to get started as soon as he can" said Sturge as he got up and left Reeve's office.

That afternoon Katherine received the Full Cure much to her relief – her wounds were now healed and she was able to look ahead. The disclosures revealed by her parents and Yuffie were of great pain to her. She understood and accepted her parents desire to protect her from old Shinra and Davies, but the events that led up to the execution of her natural parents filled her with tremendous grief. Hearing Yuffie undertake to find the remains of her natural parents and have these returned wherever she wanted for burial, and Wutai's decision to acknowledge and honour them for what they did was of some comfort to her. But the amount of information that had been provided, on top of her experiences at Davie's hands at the cavern and what she had been through during her escape were altogether too much. Dr Williams in the end decided to sedate her so that she could have some rest.

The following morning Dr Williams then approached her about what had happened to her. She gave him details about her escape excluding mention of the assaults, the aphrodisiac and her immortality. Dr Williams was able to produce this as her debrief as Sturge and Reeve wanted. He then had to tell her that he knew of the rest of the information. Her grief and anger that this was no longer a secret led her to yell at Dr Williams but he managed in the end to coax her in to giving him the full details. He was not really pleased at having to do this knowing how upset she was, but he did as he had to and then later discussed it with Sturge and Reeve. He had made a report that would be buried in confidentiality and never seen by any other person's eyes. He had even mentioned to Katherine that Vincent would be able to explain the issue of immortality with her. At first she obviously did not believe him about Vincent's situation and after that was adamant that she would not be discussing it with him and refused to talk about it anymore, the matter was over as far as she was concerned. She simply wanted to move on.

Since she was now physically fully recovered the following morning she took her mother and Chrissie with her to the storage facility and with their help selected all the furniture and other items she required for her new quarters. The refurbishment she had requested was already complete. Three hours later the items were delivered to her unit and she and the Bucks spent some time making up the beds and deciding where the towels etc were going to be kept. Then she went back to her old room and they packed up all of her personal items and took them to her unit and put them away. Following that she took them out to the nearby Kalm supermarket outside of the WRO and they had fun purchasing full supplies for her new kitchen and other resources that she would need. Finally at 8pm she decided she was tired and wanted to go to bed. Chrissie returned to her own room and her parents to the guest room they were in. Following that Katherine laid in her bed and cried and cried.

Saturday morning Katherine told her parents she would be returning to work on Monday so it was probably best if they returned to Junon on Sunday afternoon. She made them think she was fully recovered and happy and ready to continue with her G Squad training so they agreed with her. Chrissie would also be returning to her training on Monday morning so there was really nothing else for them to be there for.

Rufus Shinra came to visit her and her parents in the afternoon and expressed his regret over his father's actions. He made it clear that since old Shinra was responsible for her loss, she would be receiving compensation which although was not intended to make things any better it would provide the support she would have received if like other children she had lost her parents in some kind of accident. He made a large cash payment to her and suggested to her that she allow the WRO's legal department to carry out the negotiations with New Shinra on her behalf to ensure that the remaining compensation was appropriate. Katherine agreed since she did want to be able to organise her parent's burial when they were returned from Wutai.

And that was that. Katherine wanted to no longer discuss her abduction or Davies and made no other mention of anything that had happened. She was interested in her limit breaks but made no effort to try and show them to her parents or Chrissie. She laughed and smiled with them and made them feel she was fully recovered and now happy. She also did not tell them that she had killed Davies and some of the guards. Williams, Reeve and Sturge were aware of her situation but there was nothing else they could do. She was not interested in discussing anything further with them, wanting only to look ahead to her training in G Squad. She also avoided any contact with Vincent from the time he returned back from Cosmo Canyon in the morning.


	12. 12 Immortality seems so harsh

**12. Immortality seems so harsh**

Katherine and Chrissie had waved their parents off just after lunch on Sunday. Reeve had made available a flight for them considering it was the WRO that had brought them to Kalm in the first place and they returned home happy that both of their girls were fine and returning to their training. Chrissie and Katherine then spent the rest of the day together going for a walk and just getting used to everything returning to normal. Sunday evening Zak invited Chrissie out to dinner and Katherine persuaded her to go as she was looking forward to spending some time on her own at last.

She heard Vincent returning to his unit but didn't go over and say hello. She had some thinking to do about him. She had come to terms with the assaults that Davies had carried out on her – while she had resented them she was also being realistic. He had touched her breasts – she had hated it and been angry, but he had touched her firstly through her leather and then through her teeshirt so in fact he had not touched her naked breasts or any other part of her body. The aphrodisiac had not even been produced let alone forced on her to drink. The guard had touched her but she had encouraged him to do that as part of her escape plan. It had been unpleasant to act like that but necessary and again she had not been naked. Hundreds of women around the planet were subjected to full sexual assaults and rapes every year – their situations were a lot worse than hers and she was not going to spend any more time crying over it.

Her limit breaks had been channelled and helped to save her life. She had killed Davies and some guards with them and also shot some guards. She was a warrior, killing and death was going to be part of her existence for many years to come. It was something that she had had to come to terms with several years ago when she first made her decision to take warrior training and in fact the cold, aloof detachment she sometimes experienced made the outcomes meaningless to her. Her limit breaks would be part of her defence and her summon break would also be part of a companion to her. She was fine now about these issues.

The only thing that filled her with dread and frightened her was her immortality. She had not agreed to discuss it once the initial discussion with Williams was over, it was her personal matter and she had no intention of allowing anyone to probe it with her. But she was scared. She was now 24 and apparently would be 24 – well forever. Her parents would age and pass on as all parents did. But she would still be 24 when it happened and every year that her sister grew older, she would remain the same. For the next few years they probably would not even notice, but once Chrissie got to about 30 it would just be a matter of time before she realised how young Katherine still looked and pointed it out to her.

Apparently Nanaki had a long life span too. Although he was not immortal his race did live for several hundred years. But Vincent was like her – he would live forever and would remain looking as he did now. Katherine had been doing some research on the web site during the evening and had found some background on Vincent although not much. She wondered how long he had actually been alive. From what Williams had confirmed, her age froze from the time the immortality treatment had been applied. This must have also happened to Vincent, she supposed and he was about 27 now as far as she knew.

Before she had had any thoughts on immortality, she had just been thinking about her and Vincent as ordinary people. Ok so Vincent had four demons inside of him. But they were ok, Death Vigas had twice made her feel calm and relaxed and Galian Beast had found the entrance to the cavern for them apparently. Chaos had been thoughtful towards her and she had enjoyed meeting him. Seeing him attack the guards had been an experience for sure, but once she saw his eyes she had realised who he was and he had protected her until Vincent had transformed back. She was very attracted to Vincent and had felt some feelings returned. She had assumed over a period of time they would have started dating and may be fallen in love and had a long term relationship that could even result in marriage, who knows.

But Vincent was immortal. So how long would he have been attracted to her for? Would he have left her after several years to find a younger woman? Would he have stayed with her as she aged, knowing that he had only to wait for a small time in terms of his life span for her to pass on so that he could find someone else? Would they have had children and if so would the children be immortal or would they age past Vincent? All of those things were now in the back of her mind.

Not to mention her own immortality now. If Vincent found out about it, would it make him decide he wanted her solely so that he had someone around him always? Would he like to be with her on and off, but leave her sometimes for a fling over a few years with someone else he found and then come back to her again expecting her to be there for him still? Would she herself find other men throughout her life? How did he really feel towards her now?

Katherine was now so unsure of her situation. If she could have had someone to talk it over with it would have helped her but she could not talk it over with anyone who was mortal. Which left Vincent and she could not discuss it with him – he might tell her things just because he found out she was immortal and wanted to improve his chances of having a life partner based solely on the fact she was not going to die. She knew she was falling in love with him but she also knew her situation and knowledge about him had changed this.

It was so hard for her. She had dated a few guys over the years but her focus had been on her career not on her love life. She was even still a virgin not ever having met anyone so far that she wanted to have that level of relationship with. Well not until she met Vincent anyway but now of course their possible situation had changed completely. Chrissie had dated a lot of guys over the years and Katherine had no doubt she had lost her virginity several years ago although the girls had never discussed that. She seemed to now be head over heels with Zak who was also focused on her. It was great for them but was totally different from her own situation. Her confusion had led to her avoiding Vincent all weekend, knowing that he was coming home on Saturday morning and therefore organising to go and spend time with her parents and Chrissie so she could avoid bumping in to him. She couldn't avoid him tomorrow since she was back at work but Katherine was determined she was going to treat him just as she had at the beginning of her training course and not allow her involvement with him to go any further. The thought brought tears to her eyes but she had to be realistic and focus on herself.

Vincent meanwhile had had an awful weekend. He had been so keen to come back to Kalm and see Katherine and had ended up not seeing her at all. Apparently she had had a Full Cure which was why she had been able to be discharged from the medical centre and focus on spending time with her parents and her sister. May be she had made that decision because her parents were going home. He hoped that was the reason anyway.

He had had some difficult discussions with Sturge as well. He had assumed that he and Yuffie would have a debriefing with Katherine on Monday since she was now recovered, however Sturge had told him that while Vincent was away Katherine had asked Williams to allow her to talk to him about her captivity and her escape. There had apparently been some things that Katherine had revealed solely to Williams with a request that they not be revealed to anyone else and she was entitled to have her confidentiality maintained. Vincent was not happy with this situation but there was nothing he could do about it. He had managed to gain access to her general debriefing but had also been advised that it was not to be raised with her in any way unless she herself requested it. Whatever else she had told Williams was none of his business basically.

Since she had now channelled all of her breaks and all of G Squad and Reeve were aware of them there would be no special training with him in relation to them. She would use the breaks when required and whoever she was with in those situations, which might be him from time to time but was also quite likely to be other members of G Squad. From tomorrow she would simply be following the normal Stage 2 training program, the first week of which would in fact be more with Zak as he would be taking her through their research and online database facilities. Monday would be focused on her academic training classes too, with a replacement for Ms Black already identified.

Vincent would continue with her firearms training naturally and the use of her materia but he just seemed to sense the closeness of their training relationship had changed and he really could not put his finger on it. He had even attempted to ask Williams about the treatment on her eyes and Williams had simply told him that her eyes were fine but her treatment was of course confidential. Feeling frustrated Vincent had also been requested to provide any details of the Cetra origins of her summon break he had discovered to Sturge rather than discuss them with Katherine direct. He had tried to oppose this but Sturge had simply sat there and blinked at him as if to say "what is your problem, Vincent?". So far he had not found the history that he and Nanaki had been looking for and further intended to continue this with Nanaki.

As he came back to his unit on Sunday night he had paused outside of her door, tempted to knock on it and see if she was there but then growled in frustration and made his way in to his room. He had also received an assignment from Sturge that meant that he, Kristian and Troy would be heading off early on Tuesday morning to track down some monsters near Corel that Barret had alerted them to and would be unlikely to return until the weekend. He had decided to go and spend some time with Yuffie and see if she could perhaps give him some information or a point of view that might help him but when he went to see her he found her and Arist packing to return home since she had been told she was not needed for Katherine's debriefing any more.

Sighing he gave up trying to read in the end and went to bed where he tossed and turned for several hours resulting in him being tired and bad tempered on Monday morning. His demons had been observing him and whispering to themselves quietly without him being able to hear them. Chaos had attempted to just have some light hearted general conversation with him on and off and on the whole had simply been ignored. Indeed Vincent was not a happy man at the moment.

On Monday Katherine came and had breakfast with them all and although she smiled at Vincent and said good morning she sat in between Zak and Darren while she was eating. She headed in to G Squad at 9am and was in discussion with Sturge for half an hour and then sent off to attend her academic classes. Vincent did not see her for the rest of the day even at dinner time which he for once spent in the dining room only for her not to turn up there for her meal. Chaos was wondering what was going on with Katherine. He was quite sure that she had been beginning to open up to Vincent last week once he rescued her and now seemingly she was not.

Tuesday Vincent headed off with his team to Corel and did not return until Saturday lunchtime. He had missed Katherine immensely. Ironically Katherine had also missed him. For some reason their budding relationship seemed to have frozen and Vincent was stumped about what to do. Vincent saw her and Chrissie having lunch together at a cafe onsite and walked over just to say hello to them both but kept on going. As walked past them Chaos gave a startled gasp between his teeth. Vincent asked him what was wrong but for once Chaos ignored him and so he assumed Chaos was in an argument with the other demons with them just being annoying as they sometimes were.

Finally on Saturday night he got to talk to Katherine at last. Yuffie had rung him about something of Sierra's they could not find and asked him if he could check her personal quarters and see he could find it and ask Rebecca to send it to them if he did. Since he had nothing else to do he had started in Yuffie and Arist's room and then finally found what they were after in the lounge room on the ground floor. Returning to his room he felt how warm it was in their corridor and as he approached the rooms he found that Katherine had propped her door open to let the air circulate and was sitting on the floor surrounded by some maps.

Vincent stopped and walked over to her doorway. "Are you doing some geography homework?" he asked smiling. Katherine looked up and smiled at him. "No thank goodness – I really do hope that is not a subject that they ever make me study in detail. This is something else that I'm having a bit of trouble with to be honest". "Like me to help you?" asked Vincent and Katherine nodded. "Yes please if you have some time – I'll just grab some coffee" she said disappearing in to the kitchen. Vincent sat down on the ground with his back rested against one of her couches and looked at the maps – there were several there with mainly town details. Katherine came back in with some coffee and handed a mug to Vincent before sitting down.

"You remember that Yuffie said she would find my parents remains and send them to me for burial?" she asked a bit awkwardly. Vincent nodded. "Well she has let me know that they have been found and wants to know where I would like them to sent. I think she was assuming I would like them sent to Junon but to be honest I really don't want to have them buried where old Shinra were. They don't have any friends there any more anyway – well not ones that I would like to think of as their friends since they thought my parents were doing the wrong thing when they went against Shinra. My parents died because of what those in Junon did – it's not right that they are laid to rest in that City".

Katherine took a drink of her mug. "I have therefore been thinking of where the best place for them would be. I thought of Kalm first of all as it's the main base of the WRO and Chrissie and I are here at the moment. But then I thought my natural parents actually knew no one who is involved with the WRO. Once Chrissie completes her training this year she could be assigned to a medics base anywhere and I really don't know how long I will be here for. If I am appointed fully to G Squad I could be here for several years but to be honest, after 10 years at the most I would be looking for something different – I really can't see myself as just deciding to stay in my only ever base for 40 years. Once I leave in the future I won't be here to care for my parent's grave". She looked up at Vincent. "Do you understand what I mean Vincent? I am not being discourteous towards G Squad".

Vincent nodded. "I do understand Katherine – I doubt whether even the other three Lieutenants would plan on being here forever" he said. Katherine looked a little relieved "I'm glad you understand what I mean Vincent" she said. "So – the next option I considered was Midgar which apparently is where my father was born. Reno and Rude managed to find me a bit of personal information about my parents and they found a letter that was sent to old Shinra about 3 years after my parents were missing. It was from my father's mother who was asking for some news about him since they had not had any contact with him for about 5 years – which in fact was two years before they even went missing. My father's parents apparently still live there and he also had three brothers and two sisters. We visited them a few times up until I was about 3 apparently but I have no recollection of this as I would of course have been too young".

"It seems that my parents did not have much contact with them over the years mainly because my father was not that close with them although they got along ok. They were sent a reply from old Shinra that told them that my parents and myself had gone missing several years before and it was believed that we were all victims to some monsters and they regretted that they were unable to give them any more information. Obviously that was not true, but in any case it was the last correspondence they sent about us and it looks as if they never came to Junon to try and find out what happened. I am therefore reluctant to have my parents buried there – although I will at some stage in the future go to Midgar to meet them and tell them what happened, I don't feel ready to do that yet and I most certainly don't want to have his family involved in deciding how they are to be commemorated – they simply were not that involved with him".

Katherine took another drink from her mug. "So, the next people I thought of were my mother's family. But apparently her own mother died when I was about 3 and after that her father moved to Cosmo Canyon. He seems to have had very little contact with my mother and he may of course have remarried and have a new family there now. Again, at some time in the future I will probably visit him and let him know what happened but I don't really have much interest in him on a personal level and I'm not even sure where he lived before he went to Cosmo" Katherine explained. Vincent nodded, so far this had all made sense to him.

"So next I thought of Nibelhelm but had no earthly reason to want to bury them there. The same goes for Costa del Sol, Rocket Town, Corel, Gold Saucer and Icicle Inn. For obvious reasons I have no interest in Gongoga. I did think of the City of the Ancients but to be honest the only link with my parents would be because my mother had the summons break that originated from the Cetra who had some presence there. But it's not really a suitable location to honour my parents and recognise what they did for Wutai" finished Katherine. She looked at Vincent "so really I have no idea what to do for them".

Vincent thought for a moment. "How do you feel about them being remembered by Wutai?" he asked. "Well – I know that they died for Wutai but Wutai needed them, it was at the mercy of old Shinra and they were just trying to do something to help them. Even the Empress died the night that they did. From what Yuffie has said they will be doing something in Wutai to honour my parents and remember what they did for them" said Katherine. "So how would you feel if they were buried in Wutai, Katherine? Their acknowledgement and remembrance won't be like if you moved on from say Kalm after 10 years. The Kisaragi line will always ensure that they will be remembered there for what they did". Katherine was silent for a moment thinking it through. "It would in fact be an ideal place for them. But how do you think Yuffie and her advisors would feel about it?" she asked. "Knowing Yuffie she would be both honoured and proud if you made that decision and would ensure that their burial location was always maintained to a high level and their sacrifice for Wutai remembered eternally" said Vincent. "You would then always have a special place to visit to remember them, no matter where you are located" he concluded.

Katherine thought about it some more and Vincent could tell from the look on her face that she was really warming to the idea. "I think I would have to talk to my parents first to let them know what I am thinking of doing, but I could call Yuffie and ask her to consider it" she concluded. "Why don't you call your parents now and then you could contact Yuffie tomorrow about it?" he asked. Katherine grinned. "Good idea Vincent I am so pleased I was able to talk about it with you – I'll just give them a quick call a moment" she said heading for her phone. Vincent gathered from that comment that she was not expecting him to leave and so he picked up the map from Wutai and lent back studying it while Katherine called her parents. After 10 minutes she put down the phone and said to him enthusiastically "they think it's a great idea and mum says to tell you thanks for having suggested it. I will call Yuffie in the morning and request her to think about it" she said bubbling. "She'll be more than glad to hear from you, I can guarantee it" he said.

The two of them sat back and Katherine bundled all of the maps together. She then started to look shy and tried to think of something else to say to him. "How did you go in Corel this week?" she decided to ask. Vincent grimaced – "those monsters stank to high heaven and were the most revolting colour I have seen in a long time" said Vincent. "We were all heartily sick of them by the end of the week and glad to make it home today". Katherine laughed. "Part of me wishes that I could have had experience in tracking them down and then removing them but the other part is glad if they stank that much" she said.

Vincent smiled. "I do have some assignments lined up that you'll be able to be involved with and I suspect that you will not be overly impressed with the smell of them anyway. Fort Condor and Bone Village have some difficult monsters that we have been asked to assist with since local forces have found them too hard to manage" he said. "Oh wow, when will we be heading off for them?" asked Katherine excitedly. "Probably at the end of next week for three weeks. I'm not sure how many of us will be needed just yet, whether it's just the two of us or whether the others will need to come as well" he went on. Katherine flushed a little pink "it might be a suitable challenge for the two of us" she said.

Vincent decided that the conversation had come to a suitable point. "Katherine I am not expecting you to give me any details of your confidential reports but how are you feeling now? Have you managed to move forward past what happened successfully?" he asked. Katherine looked down. "I am over what happened in terms of being abducted and then escaping. It sucked but I dealt with it and have moved on. I am also really comfortable with my limit breaks – especially my summons break, it will be good to be able to show you it in more detail if we go away next week" she explained. "I've also come to terms with what happened to my parents – it was hard hearing the full details, but bear in mind I have now been used to the concept of them not being here anymore for 12 years".

Katherine paused. Should she tell him or not? "There is also something else that I had to come to terms with but to be honest I am not up to discussing it yet. May be I will be able to tell you about it in the future or maybe I won't, I don't really know yet. But I do know that you saved me Vincent and that is something that I will never forget and will always feel strongly about" she finished blushing a deep pink.

Vincent felt a lot better all of a sudden. While he was aware that there was obviously something that she might never tell him her comments about him saving her finally made her sound closer to him again at last – something he had been hoping for since he came back from Cosmo Canyon. "I'm glad Katherine" he said without actually explaining what it was he was glad about. Looking at her head tilted down softly he felt such a desire to hold her in his arms and kiss her, but was worried it was too soon to make a move like that yet. May be it was something that would move along better if just the two of them were sent out next week.

Katherine yawned a little bit and apologised. "I've been looking at these maps for so long tonight, it was not going well at all until you came in to give me a hand" she explained. "I'm glad I was able to be of some help to you – and since you are planning on ringing Yuffie in the morning I think perhaps I should leave you now so you can go to bed" he said standing up. She looked at him a little self consciously "may be as a means of thanking you for your help I could make you some pancakes for breakfast" she offered shyly. "That would be nice Katherine – give me a yell when you are ready, any time is fine by me for breakfast" he said knowing that he would no doubt be up at 6am and sit in a chair and wait until she was ready for him. Saying goodnight he left her unit and went in to his own with a smile on his face.

Following the week's monster killings he had been involved with and then the enjoyable evening he had ended up spending with Katherine he actually felt tired for once and hit his bed for an undisturbed sleep. After an hour of him sleeping Chaos decided he was deeply enough asleep and transformed quietly without disturbing him. Vincent was within him fast asleep and with no disturbance.

Chaos left their unit quietly from the window and made his way around to Katherine's unit. Her kitchen window was still ajar and Chaos opened it wider and entered her unit, heading quietly towards her bedroom. He slipped in and approached her in bed, his hand coming out to cover her mouth. Katherine's eyes shot open and she moved back with her hand reaching for her gun. Chaos reached out his other hand and placed it over her weapon. "Katherine it is me, Chaos. I am not here to hurt you but I need to talk to you. Vincent is asleep and is not aware that I have transformed. We need to keep our voices down so that we do not waken him, do you understand?" asked Chaos. Katherine now realised who it was and nodded, rather surprised that he was in her bedroom. Chaos pulled a chair up and sat down, thinking this would actually make Katherine feel a bit more relaxed about having him appear like this. Hopefully.

"Katherine, when Vincent sat with you in the medical centre I could sense something emanating from you but I not was not sure what it was at the time. Today when Vincent walked past you and your sister at the cafe, I realised what it was – your body had lost any of the medications that had been circulating around you for the few days and I felt it immediately" Chaos paused. "Katherine, you are immortal" he said.

Katherine looked at him with absolute horror on her face. "How do you know?" she gasped softly. "I am an immortal demon, Katherine. I can sense it". "Oh my god – does Vincent know?" she asked in panic. "Calm down – the only ones that can tell are demons, Katherine. I know and so do my brother demons. They will not mention it to a soul. But I need to know Katherine, what happened?" he asked. "Do you promise me that you will not tell him? Please?" she begged. Chaos sighed.

"Katherine, he is my host. I cannot hide things from him indefinitely. If you tell me what has happened and what you are planning than I may – may – be able to promise not to tell him for the time being at least" he offered. Katherine sighed – this was the most that she could hope for. She realised that if she refused to tell him he would most likely transform back and tell Vincent. At least he had not told him so far it seemed. "The only person I have admitted this too is Dr Williams, Chaos – and only because he had received the reports from the cavern" she explained.

She sat up more and her fingers began to play with each other. "Oh god I really don't know how to tell you this, Chaos. Please don't hate me for it" she said, begging him. "Why would I hate you Katherine?" he asked. She sighed. "I will tell you what happened Chaos, but please don't be harsh on me" she said. Taking a deep breath Katherine then told Chaos everything that had happened to her from the time she came too on her arrival at the cavern up to how she managed to escape the laboratory. Davie's assaults on her, finding out about the aphrodisiac that he would have made her swallow after having extracted her break, having the immortality treatment tested on her and what she did with the guard to be able to free herself from the table. She left nothing out of her explanation to him and kept her head down the whole time she spoke to him.

Chaos was stunned. He sat there for some minutes after she finished speaking. She began to get scared. "Chaos? Have I made you feel bad things towards me?" she asked in fear. Chaos looked at her. "Katherine, there is nothing that you have told me that could possibly make me feel bad towards you" he assured her. "I am simply coming to grips with what he did to you. It is beyond the worst thing that I could ever have imagined you would have suffered" he said in honesty.

He paused for another moment. "Katherine are you aware that Vincent is himself immortal?" he asked. She nodded. "Dr Williams told me and suggested that Vincent should be able to explain it to me. I just couldn't allow him to know, I just couldn't" she said with tears falling down her face. "Why not Katherine?" asked Chaos again. Katherine burst in to sobs. "Because he may decide he only wants me because of it" she cried.

Chaos looked at her and could only think what a tangled web the two of them were now in. "What to do, what to do" he thought to himself. Could he tell Katherine how Vincent felt about her?. Hmm no it had to come from Vincent when he was ready to tell her. But on the other hand, Vincent was not going to understand why Katherine had been acting cooler towards him until this evening. "Katherine, this is very difficult. I do know some things about Vincent that I cannot tell you, he would need to tell you himself. He will tell you himself when he feels the time is right. But he will not understand why you are choosing to act a little more distant towards him. He may think you have started to change your mind about how you may have been feeling about him. In which case he would not tell you because he would assume that you did not want him to be close to you" explained Chaos.

"If he knew that you had been subjected to this I am sure that he would tell you everything. His only concern would be you Katherine he would not try and twist both of your situations around to create an advantage for him. That is simply not in his nature – I know him more than anyone else on the planet Katherine, I know everything that he thinks and that he wants. You just need to be able to trust him to tell you when he thinks you are ready to receive what he wants to tell you" explained Chaos.

He sighed. "Due to his – history he is sensitive in ways that ordinary people do not understand and he would never reveal that to others. I know only because I can access his thoughts, his dreams and his memories. He knows what he wants but he is prepared to give it some time to arrive at where he wants to go. To give you time. Too much time given your new situation, but of course he does not know this". Chaos was thoughtful again while Katherine looked at him anxiously. "You will be leaving with him at the end of next week for 3 weeks. That will give you the total of one month. I will therefore give you one month Katherine to come to him and tell him the truth of your situation. After that, I will tell him". Katherine opened her mouth to protest but Chaos shook his head. "One month Katherine – either you tell him about yourself during that time or you leave me no option but to tell him myself" Chaos concluded.

"One more thing – I will expect you to remain on good terms with him Katherine as you were tonight and how you were when you were in the medical centre. If you start to push him away he will not understand why and will assume it is because you feel nothing for him. In which case I will immediately tell him of your situation so that he understands why" finished Chaos. "Do you understand?". Katherine nodded with tears running down her cheeks. Chaos smiled at her. "I understand why you are confused and frightened by this Katherine – but I can assure you that you can trust Vincent more than you can even imagine" Chaos finished as he stood up. "I will leave now – and see you tomorrow for breakfast" and with that he left her bedroom and exited her unit from her kitchen window again.


	13. Chapter 13 Breakfast for Vincent

**13. Breakfast for Vincent**

Sunday morning Vincent woke at 6am and straight away hit the shower, looking forward to spending breakfast time with Katherine. As he shampooed his hair and washed his body he had his eyes closed just thinking of her. The way she looked, the way she moved, the way she spoke and laughed – Vincent was simply intoxicated with her. As he thought of her body again his member once again started to expand – Vincent was soon so hard and reached his hand down in between his thighs and grasped his penis, starting to rub himself with long, firm strokes as he thought of her. Gods she was perfection, all that he wanted – and he felt so aroused at the mere thought of her. He continued rubbing himself while he thought of her and then became too aroused to continue it slowly. Reaching down with his other hand he once again cupped his balls, rubbing them as he picked up the speed of masturbating his cock. Gods, he wanted to take her so much – kissing every inch if her body, touching her all over and sucking her breasts before he moved down between her thighs and inserted his tongue inside her, to kiss and caress her in there until she came. He groaned in satisfaction as his cum shot from his cock and got washed away under the shower. She was simply beyond everything he had ever dreamed off and he wanted her so much to be his. There was no hiding his thoughts to the back of his brain any more – he was in love with her, more than he had ever loved any woman in his life.

Finishing his shower, he turned off the tap and grabbed his towel to dry his body off and rub his hair. Walking in to his bedroom he opened his wardrobe to choose what to wear. His black and his blue shirts that Yuffie had bought for him were hanging there – the only two he possessed. There was one pair of jeans there too. He also had a tuxedo which he was required to wear when G Squad were providing security to Reeve when he was hosting a formal evening for governing committees from other cities. He had a pair of thongs and a pair of casual shoes on the floor of the wardrobe next to his formal black shoes that he wore with his tuxedo. Vincent swore to himself. Why had he never bought casual clothes before? Why did he always end up in his leather gear? Crossing to his drawers he pulled them open – there was hardly anything inside the top one and the rest were empty. He had two black tee shirts he sometimes wore with his leather pants, a pair of loose black track pants he wore in bed when he was not sleeping naked and three pairs of boxer shorts and half a dozen pairs of socks. One of which was a decent black pair to wear with his Tuxedo, the others fairly worn socks he wore with his leather gear and his metal boots. That was it.

Vincent stepped back to his bed and sat down. What was he going to wear to Katherine's unit this morning to have breakfast with her? First of all his leather gear was out – he had even had it on when he went in there to look at the maps with her last night, at least he'd not had his metal boots or his cloak on. When he wore his leather pants he wore no underwear – he never had, when he was out camping and walking through after monsters and enemies he simply undid his pants and peed or crapped behind bushes or trees. He only put his boxers on when he had his tuxedo or his jeans on.

Reality dawned on Vincent – he needed to hit the stores later and buy some clothes. Katherine was not going to be impressed with his clothes once she twigged this was all he had. But what to put on now hmm? It was still quite warm this morning. Boxers and jeans and – hmm a black tee shirt may be? At least he'd not worn one with her so far, she had seen his two shirts before so he wanted to wear something a bit different. He got dressed quickly and then looked at the shoes. He decided to go with the thongs, at least it would look like casual early morning breakfast wear – he hoped. He found the leather thong Yuffie had made him wear before too and tied his hair back. At least he didn't look too bad. It was now 6.45am and he sat down with a book to read while he waited for Katherine to let him know it was time for breakfast.

Meanwhile Katherine was now showered and was also looking at her clothes. What would be the best to wear with Vincent this morning, she wondered. Something casual and relaxed but that made her look attractive. Shorts? Hmm no. She thought for a few minutes and then decided to wear a pair of jeans with a bright but casual summer top. She'd go bare foot as it was fairly early and very casual, just having breakfast for the two of them. Or should she have something on her feet? Decisions, decisions. In the end she decided on a very relaxed and casual pair of low sandals. Opening her drawers she pulled out a dark champagne coloured bra and undies, edged with lace. Having got dressed she checked herself in the full length mirror, turning round to see what she looked like. Perfect. Casual and relaxed to show it was an easy breakfast morning but at the same time attractive. Her hair was long and untied. She then sprayed some of her freesia scent on and went through to plan breakfast.

Dining room or kitchen? Which would be best, she wondered. Having it in the kitchen was very casual – may be the dining room was a little too smart. Plus if they had it in the kitchen Vincent would be able to talk to her while she got the pancakes ready. She then laid the table in the kitchen, setting out her nice cutlery and glasses and coffee cups. She put the coffee machine ready to start on the work top and found her napkins. After 10 minutes of setting the table and then rearranging it she finally decided she had made it look good. Next she opened the fridge and took out strawberries and grapes and mangoes and cut those up and made them ready. She had a delicious plain white yoghurt in a bowl and found some things to be added to the pancakes – fresh lemons, maple syrup, golden syrup and raspberry jam. Hopefully he'd like one of those anyway.

Finally she got out everything that she needed to use to cook the pancakes and whipped up the batter to add to the fry pan. She glanced at the clock – it was now 7.45am, she figured that was a reasonable time to go and fetch him since she knew he tended to be up fairly early. Opening her door she wedged it open to allow the air to circulate again and went and knocked on his door. Vincent opened it straight away and smiled at her. "Good morning Vincent, ready for breakfast?" she asked smiling at him. "I am indeed" he replied and came out of his unit, wedging his own door open too. They were not expecting anyone else to appear on their floor anyway.

Heading back in to her unit she looked over her shoulder and said "come and make yourself comfy in the kitchen, I'm ready to cook the pancakes now and coffee will be ready in a couple of minutes". Vincent followed her in and looked at the table – very nice. "Is there anything that you would like me to help with?" he asked. "No, it's all done – the pancakes will only take a few minutes to cook, I didn't want to do them until you were here" she replied turning on the fry pan and melting a little butter in it to cook the pancakes in. She cooked 8 pancakes, keeping them warm under the grill pan until they were all ready and then brought them to the table. "Help yourself to however many you would like, I can cook some more if we want them" she told him.

Vincent smiled and added two pancakes to his plate and then slit a lemon and squeezed it on the top of them, adding jam to one pancake and maple syrup to another. Katherine did a similar thing, adding golden syrup to them both once she'd squeezed the lemon on. This was the kind of thing her mum had cooked since she and Chrissie were tiny, she'd decided not to worry about fancy restaurant toppings as she wanted a low key casual approach to them. Vincent put some of the pancakes in his mouth and was impressed – she was a good cook.

After they had been eating for a few minutes they gradually started on a relaxed and general chat and were both enjoying being with each other. Katherine still had her conversation with Chaos from last night in her mind but was careful not to let Vincent know anything about what they had discussed. She really was screwed up by Chaos though – if she had decided to try and back Vincent off a bit about his attraction to her, Chaos was going to tell him immediately what had happened to her. Now he'd left it for one month and after that would tell Vincent what Davies had done to her if she did not tell him herself. Although giving credit to Chaos, he knew they were both very attracted to each other.

As the clock headed to 10am, Vincent realised that he should say thank you for his breakfast and leave. While he would in fact just like to stay with her all day, that really was not appropriate yet. She did seem a bit interested in him, but he realised he had to give it some time yet.

"Thanks for breakfast Katherine, I really enjoyed it. I expect you'll be contacting Yuffie soon" he said smiling at her. She nodded and got up and showed him out. He went in to his unit, changed in to a shirt and some casual shoes and then headed out to the stores to go buy some clothes and update his appearance. Chaos started chatting with him then and didn't mention anything at all about Katherine – but he'd been in close observation all morning.

Katherine tided up her kitchen and then called Yuffie. She explained the issues she'd had trying to think of the most appropriate place for her parents to be buried and gave Yuffie a tentative suggestion of Wutai being appropriate. Yuffie was thrilled and grateful to Katherine. After having some general discussion, Yuffie suggested to Katherine that a formal burial service should be held in about 6 weeks time and that Wutai would be honoured to organise it as part of its formal recognition to Jessica and Alexander de Ville and what they had done for Wutai. Yuffie promised to keep in regular contact with Katherine so she would be aware of what it was that Wutai was planning on building for her parents.

They finished their call and then Katherine glanced at her watch. She and Chrissie were partnered up for the volley ball competitions that after noon so she got changed and headed off to meet her for the rest of the day.

In the meantime, Vincent was shopping in a few men's shops. He had quite a few items to buy and Chaos was rather surprised by the extent of his shopping, but let him go for it. Vincent purchased three pairs of casual trousers, three pairs of jeans, several casual shirts and some teeshirts and some casual shoes. He selected several pairs of boxer shorts and new socks. One of the discreet male shop assistants also persuaded him to purchase a couple of sweaters, a casual jacket and then a leather jacket. The sales assistant was happy with the money that he managed to extract from Vincent and Vincent was happy feeling he was now slightly more better dressed. He arrived back at his unit and threw away his old items from his drawer and added his new items and hung the rest in the wardrobe. This really was a big change for Vincent – Chaos just kept his amusement to himself.

On Monday Katherine was again engaged on her academic studies, including her materia. On Tuesday she was sent with Cloud to some locations just outside of Kalm to concentrate on her weapon session. It wasn't until Wednesday that Vincent finally got to spend some more time with her, the two of them headed to some more locations just outside Kalm.

They travelled out by Shadowfox, the first time Katherine had been in one. It was an armoured vehicle in case they encountered problems with the monsters and Vincent went over the previous use of the vehicle a bit to give her an indication of what the WRO tended to use it for. There were several monsters around in the area they were headed for, however they were used generally for warrior training by the WRO and numbers of them were kept down to what they needed. Periodically if they became excessive, the warriors were taken out on specific projects to reduce the numbers and injuries were generally rare and usually minor in nature. As part of Katherine's Stage 2 G Squad training, the day's training was to focus on her firearms training and use of materia. Limit breaks would also be used if the threat became that excessive.

The Shadowfox was parked downwind from the monsters and the two of them checked their equipment before heading off to reach them. "We will be focusing on your firearms training which will also include the more advanced training that you will experience in Stage 2. As you probably remember, Stage 1 and the Elite warrior training did not include the options for the sort of skills you are capable of using, which is why Stage 2 is more suited for you. The training will involve your physical movement with your firearms – you will be able to use the rocks etc to rebound and twist your body as you need to. That will also become more enhanced as you become more experienced with it. You will also be using your materia a fair bit today, although I think that utilising your Enemy Skill and summon materias will be more appropriate when we go to Fort Condor and Bone Village next week" Vincent explained.

"I am wearing my Minerva Band with Restore, Heal and Full Cure and I have the ribbon on as well" said Katherine. "I wore them yesterday too when I was out with Cloud, but the monsters we encountered there were fairly basic and I didn't get any problems with status effects" she added. "Good, good – I think we may encounter some in our mission next week, however wearing them yesterday and today will at least get you in the habit of being properly equipped. You'll also be able to change the spell materias next week as required – removing the sleep materia and replacing it with a summon one will be effective when we encounter those tough ones" said Vincent. Katherine giggled and Vincent looked at her. "Sorry, I was just remembering that Chaos was rather keen on me casting sleep on you so he could come out and chat" she said laughing. Vincent rolled his eyes "why am I not surprised at the way the pair of you laughed at that".

"Now, I have certain enhanced abilities, one of which is my sense of smell – I can smell the location of the monsters now which indicates to me their direction and distance. I'll be heading in their direction, tell me when you can start to smell their location please" outlined Vincent. Katherine nodded and began to concentrate on this – she was good with strong smells but at the moment could not smell the monsters at all. "We are downwind from them, which means our scent is blowing behind us, away from them. Theirs however is blowing towards us" explained Vincent "and since this is our warrior training area, the monsters are usually within range of our cameras here, which are kept under the observation of our research trainees. When the warriors are present, their activities are watched by the researchers too and medical trainees are also within range to provide assistance as part of their training as well. Today it's only us here, however the researchers will be able to keep observations as needed".

A couple of minutes later Katherine dropped to her knees, inhaling the smells she picked up. "I can smell them now and direction is straight across here" she said pointing. "Well done – we will continue towards them and launch attacks when we are close enough" said Vincent. After a couple more minutes, Vincent withdrew his Death Penalty from his holster. "I will be focusing on some longer range shots to provide back up to you, Katherine – I want you to take the lead and use your weapon on them, which is closer range. There are at least 8 of them nearby judging by their smell and the sound of their movements" said Vincent. Katherine nodded and took out her weapon – it used to be used by her mother and was known as Salvation and Katherine was highly skilled at using it. The monsters then came in to view, about 5 ft down a steeper hill that had several rocks located at the bottom of it. Vincent raised his Death Penalty and fired at two of the monsters at the rear of the group. Katherine ran forward and leaped off the edge, turning a somersault mid air as she fired at one of the nearest ones and then bouncing off a rock to kick her legs off the edge of the steep hill, continuing to fire mid air. She hit three of them in the centre of their faces, although not between eyes like Vincent.

She landed on the ground and spun around again, thinking that they had killed five and there were three left, one of which at least Vincent would take. Unfortunately she then realised that there were a group of 12 other monsters within 20 feet of the ones she had fired on, all of which were now headed in her direction and five of which were three times the size of the rest of them. Vincent had fired Death Penalty again and then saw the other 12 as well. He drew Cerberus and leaped down the steep hill towards Katherine as well, firing 4 of them in between the eyes immediately. There were still 10 left and they were angry, snarling at them viciously.

Katherine fired the lightning mateia at them, which released a few level 2 bolts at the monsters, killing two of them. She rolled and leaped up on one of the ones she had hit as Vincent leaped off one of the rocks, leveling high in the air and firing at 3 of the monsters and then somersaulting to continue firing at another two of them. Katherine realised there were three left and without hesitating she yelled out "Sapphire Protection!". The green spells burst from her body, killing one and taking off one of the limbs of another, with blood exploding from it.

Vincent fired on the other large one that was to his right, 6 shots in turn killing it. He then turned to Katherine and started running towards her as the last one, with blood exploding out of its chest now, bore down on her. Katherine felt the sense of what she needed raising from within her "Soul Summon!" she yelled and her Lion burst from her and engaged the monster in front of her. The lion leaped on it and rolled on the ground, its teeth tearing at the throat of the monster and ripping at it with its claws. The monster rolled over and the Lion took one more vicious bite out of its head and it twitched and lay still, dead on the ground. Her Lion pranced across to her, rubbing itself against her and purring again. Katherine fell to the ground on her knees, winded out of breath after the last monsters. Her arm ran up the side of her Lion as it rested against her.

"Katherine! Are you ok?" yelled Vincent as he ran to her side. "I'm fine, I'm fine" she gasped. After a couple of minutes her breath started to come back to her. She looked at Vincent and started to smile "well I suppose I should introduce you to my baby – meet Silver Bolt" she said. Silver looked up at Vincent and smelled him, then satisfied with him she rolled on to her side next to Katherine. Vincent produced a bottle of water for Katherine and she gulped some of it down. "Well, I have to say that was a little different from what I was anticipating" she said. Vincent's heart was still caught up in his throat, he had been terrified that Katherine was going to be seriously attacked. "That second group of monsters was not visible when we first encountered the other group" he said "that could have been a lot worse than it was".

"It could, but using a materia, a limit break and then a Soul Summon put it back in to our favour. Why were some of those second ones so big?" asked Katherine. Vincent shook his head "I'm not sure, we'll have to get them investigated but I'm guessing some of them have kept out of range for some time, hence their ability to grow to that size. The trainees do not usually encounter monsters of that size in this area" said Vincent. "That was 20 all up – more than we were anticipating today?" Katherine asked. "A lot more – after the initial 8, I was thinking we might get another group of about 4 later on we could have trained you on, but I think we have now had enough for today" said Vincent a bit grimly "especially given that five of them were three times the size of the others we found".

"Can I keep Silver summoned until we get back to the Shadowfox? It seems to strengthen the summon I have with her now if we spend more time together". Vincent nodded. "I think that would be a good idea just in case we encounter any more on the way back. I will be organising for a more thorough exploration in this area and a reduction in the number we have around here too, but I think we should be headed back to the vehicle now if you have enough energy left" he finished. Katherine got to her feet "I'm fine now Vincent – I think Silver will just keep close to us as we head back but she does not seem to be sensing anything near us at the moment". "She's a cute pussy, Host" chuckled Chaos. Vincent told him a few choice sentences that made Chaos laugh. Katherine glanced at Vincent's face and noticed he seemed to be communicating with Chaos. "So does Chaos like Silver?" she asked smiling at him. Vincent gave her a look from his slit eyes "I hardly think it's something the two of you need to discuss" he said unamused.

Katherine avoided showing her sense of humour on her face but she rather got the impression that Chaos was winding Vincent up. Silver headed around her as they walked back to the vehicle – once they arrived, Katherine waved her hand at her and she disappeared inside of her. "Do we have anything we can eat before we head back?" she asked of Vincent. Vincent nodded and pulled a backpack out of the vehicle and walked over to a log with it. "This is probably the best place to eat it from" he said to her and the two of them sat down.

Katherine was hungry and started on the sandwiches, enjoying them. Vincent held one in his hand but his appetite was not really in need of food now. "So, how did I go?" asked Katherine looking at him. "Your initial movements against the first monsters weren't bad, although you will need to increase your combat exercises for the rest of this week to focus on some of your movements. Would you also please explain why you failed to move back when the second group were established and why you failed to allow my ranged attacks to cover you so that you could move back up the hill to me?" asked Vincent in a cold voice. Katherine looked at him dumbfounded. "Am I not involved in Stage 2 training now and supposed to be using my enhanced firearm and physical abilities when we are under attacks from monsters?" she said annoyed "not to mention that I have materia spells armed on my firearm and also have the ability to cast limit breaks when in that situation?".

Vincent was obviously annoyed. "And so therefore you feel that you are skilled enough to do all of that and that any vicious monsters that are attacking, you should be allowed to give an extra hit too and act as if there is no responsibility for you to be retreating from them?" he demanded from her. "You may well have now discovered your limit breaks, however when you are on a training mission with your Commander, may be you might like to bear in mind that you should be retreating and following my guidance rather than trying to act like some Acting Lieutenant who is able to make up her own mind about what she feels like doing!" he said angrily.

"No, blow this Vincent – what I did was correct and focused on the skills I do have. You were too far away and using Death Penalty before you switched to Cerberus and came in close. So what is it you are saying I should have done, let you come in front of me and shoot them by yourself and watched whether you got hit by any of them, or expected you to continue with Death Penalty and use your materias and see if I could climb up the hill again?" she stormed at him.

"That is enough de Ville. You will bear in mind that you are in your second week of your training and you will follow the directions of your Commander and not try and use your limit breaks to show off. I suggest if you have now finished eating we will return to Kalm and you can write up your report of your training session and provide it to me before you finish for the day" Vincent said coldly. Katherine looked at him with anger on her face and her chest heaving, but she stood up and walked to the Shadowfox and boarded it, keeping her eyes focused straight in front of her.

They drove back to Kalm in silence. Katherine felt she had been put in a wrong and unfair situation and Vincent was furious that she had been so close to being injured by the second group that were very large and capable of aggressive attacks. As soon as he saw the second group he was focused on assisting her immediately – and all because of his fear of her being attacked.

As they arrived at Kalm, Katherine got out of the vehicle and strode straight in to G Squad, grabbing her report documents and making a start on it. Vincent walked in behind her and went to his office that led off the main squad office. There was no one else in the squad office which was actually the best situation.

"Host, you were a complete asshole with those comments" said Chaos clearly. "I think Chaos that I don't need to hear anything from you" Vincent hissed at him. "Well that would be nice for you, but considering your attitude was out of line and you blamed her for something that you had no right too, I can assure you that you are going to be hearing lots from me" said Chaos snidely. "Just leave it Chaos, or else I am going to be losing it" said Vincent. "And what exactly do you think you will be losing, Host? Your clear line of thought, your recognition that she performed well today or your stupidity that you allowed your inappropriate thoughts to wind things up to where they should never have been?" asked Chaos coldly. "Keep out of this Chaos!" replied Vincent. "And keep out of what exactly, Host? Your admission that you are in love with her and terrified that she could have been injured?" demanded Chaos.

There was silence for a moment and then "she was nearly killed at Gongoga Chaos, if you had not managed to attack that group of guards and then keep her covered, she would be dead. Do you really think I would want to allow that to happen again?" said Vincent. "She is a warrior Host, and currently a member of G Squad. She may be in training, but you know she is going to be more skilled than the other three Lieutenants we have. Whether you like it or not, she is going to be one of the greatest warriors we have and your attitude is only going to make her consider that you see her as a second rate performer because she is female and thus she will come to believe that you only rate male warriors as the high rate ones" stated Chaos.

"That's not true Chaos, I know how skilled she is" said Vincent. "But because you are in love with her, you are scared of her doing her job freely as she should be – you are treating her wrong, Host" said Chaos clearly. "If you really want to put this situation back where it belongs, you need to tell her, Host what happened to you when you were a Turk, the battles you fought with AVALANCHE and most importantly of all, you need to openly tell her how you feel about her" concluded Chaos "and yes, you need to include Lucretia in the explanation you give her".

"It's too soon, she is not ready to want to hear how I feel about her" said Vincent. "Really? And you know that how?" asked Chaos. "Just bear in mind Host, that Tifa and Cloud are in love and fight alongside each other. You and Katherine would be quite capable of fighting alongside each other too, there is nothing to fear in that". "It's – too soon Chaos, she is not ready to hear how I feel or what happened to me". "In actual fact it is not too soon at all Host – in fact given some other circumstances of which you currently know nothing, it is completely the right time for you to reveal these things to her" said Chaos.

Chaos sighed "Host, there are things that you need to learn about but you also need to tell her things that she needs to hear. Only when you do tell her can she come close to you and then share things with you. If you don't do what you need to do, you will end up forcing me to reveal to you certain things that it would in fact be better for you to hear from her once you have revealed your innermost things to her. Host, please do this – apologise to her, tell her that you were wrong today and that you know you need to explain to her why. Tell her that the two of you will do this mission next week and that you will be revealing certain things to her during that time. Do this for both of you Host – don't end up losing her now, you will regret it for the rest of your life" Chaos finished.

Vincent got up and walked to the main office "Katherine, will you come in here please" he said. She picked up her report documents and brought them in, still looking quite angry but in fact now looking obviously quite upset.

"Katherine" he paused and screwed his eyes up and opened them again "I screwed up today. I'm sorry, it was not your fault, what I said was wrong". She looked at him in silence. "There are things that I need to tell you. I have somehow been putting them off, trying to convince myself that it is too soon. Partly because I am lacking in confidence about the situation that I have been withholding. It is not a situation that relates to your ability as a warrior or a member of G Squad. It is a situation that relates to me".

Vincent paused and wandered around his desk, stopping at the window and looking outside. "Would you forgive me for today, please. I will make arrangements for us to head off to Fort Condor on Friday with the three Lieutenants and Zak. It will take us about 5 days to undertake that part and then we will move on to Bone Village and spend about another five days there. Once that is completed – I want you to come with me to another location that we will travel to on our own. Once there, I will reveal certain things to you in confidence and be honest with you about it all. If you are up to it after that, there is one more location I would like to take you to. I will not force you to do this if you choose not to – but hope that you will be able to come with me" he finished. He continued to stand looking out of the window.

Katherine got up and walked over to him and stood just behind him "I accept your apology about today Vincent. I will come with you and the others to Fort Condor and Bone Village. When that is done – I will come with you to wherever it is you want to go and I will listen to you and trust you, Vincent". Vincent turned to her and looked down at her. "Thank you, Katherine – it is more than I deserve" he said. Katherine gave him a small smile "well I suppose that I should finish that report and then get my things organised and packed for Friday". Vincent smiled at her and nodded and she turned and left the room.

"Well done Host – I assume we are heading to Nibelhelm after Bone Village?" asked Chaos. "Yes – and then from there, to City of Ancients. I will have the harp with me and will make my final confession to her there." "It will work out well, Host – have confidence in yourself" said Chaos.


End file.
